An empirical Bayesian approach to incorporate directional movement information from a forage fish into the Arnason-Schwarz mark-recapture model

Mary A Bishop,Jordan W Bernard

doi:10.1186/s40462-021-00241-1

Mary A Bishop, Jordan W Bernard

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-021-00241-1

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Abstract

BackgroundOver the past two decades, various species of forage fish have been successfully implanted with miniaturized acoustic transmitters and subsequently monitored using stationary acoustic receivers. When acoustic receivers are configured in an array, information related to fish direction can potentially be determined, depending upon the number and relative orientation of the acoustic receivers. However, it can be difficult to incorporate directional information into frequentist mark-recapture methods. Here we show how an empirical Bayesian approach can be used to develop a model that incorporates directional movement information into the Arnason-Schwarz modeling framework to describe survival and migration patterns of a Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) population in coastal Alaska, USA.MethodsWe acoustic-tagged 326 adult Pacific herring during April 2017 and 2018 while on their spawning grounds in Prince William Sound Alaska, USA. To monitor their movements, stationary acoustic receivers were deployed at strategic locations throughout the Sound. Receivers located at the major entrances to the Gulf of Alaska were arranged in parallel arrays to determine the directional movements of the fish. Informative priors were used to incorporate the directional information recorded at the entrance arrays into the model.ResultsA seasonal migratory pattern was found at one of Prince William Sound’s major entrances to the Gulf of Alaska. At this entrance, fish tended to enter the Gulf of Alaska during spring and summer after spawning and return to Prince William Sound during the fall and winter. Fish mortality was higher during spring and summer than fall and winter in both Prince William Sound and the Gulf of Alaska.ConclusionsAn empirical Bayesian modeling approach can be used to extend the Arnason-Schwarz modeling framework to incorporate directional information from acoustic arrays to estimate survival and characterize the timing and direction of migratory movements of forage fish.

Highlights

Over the past two decades, various species of forage fish have been successfully implanted with miniaturized acoustic transmitters and subsequently monitored using stationary acoustic receivers
Using an empirical Bayesian approach, we show how directional information can be incorporated into the AS modeling framework through the use of informative priors
We describe collective migration patterns of acoustic-tagged Pacific herring based on detections at a series of acoustic receiver arrays, deployed at strategic locations throughout the Prince William Sound (Sound), to showcase the benefits of our modeling approach

Summary

Introduction

Over the past two decades, various species of forage fish have been successfully implanted with miniaturized acoustic transmitters and subsequently monitored using stationary acoustic receivers. Occurring in large schools, forage fish comprise 20–30% of the global fish catch [1] These small fish play a key role in the pelagic food web by transferring energy from primary or secondary producers to a wide variety of higher trophic level predators including seabirds, marine mammals, and other fish species [2]. Despite their importance in the marine ecosystem, little is known about the movement of forage fish. The establishment of new and discrete wintering ground locations in this herring population have been attributed to numerically dominant first-time spawners when the social learning process was disrupted due to high fishing pressure on and a scarcity of older herring [10, 12, 14]

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