All about acoustic telemetry

A major part of this project will be utilizing a technique known in the scientific community as acoustic telemetry. Put simply, we will be catching striped bass and cutting a small incision in the underbelly of the fish, inserting a small acoustic tag, suturing the fish up, and releasing it back into the wild. These tags emit a unique sound that moves through the water and will eventually get picked up by underwater computers, known as acoustic receivers. These receivers will be attached to buoys at predetermined intervals throughout our study area, so that if a fish enters within the range of detection of one of our receivers, we will be able to know the location of that fish. Other scientists have these same receivers all along the east coast which can also detect our fish. These tags can even last for up to two years, so we will be able to know where the fish goes after it leaves Massachusetts and whether or not it returns next year! Additionally, we will be able to detect fish that other researchers have tagged.

For the purposes of our project, we will be setting up acoustic receivers in Salem Harbor near Marblehead, Massachusetts and tagging fish in this same area. It will be really interesting to see how long fish stick around, what types of habitats they are using, and whether or not they return next year.