Chips in fish reveal sturgeon behaviour

Two Mount Allison University students monitoring the spawning habits of Atlantic sturgeon in New Brunswick's rivers have uncovered some unexpected results.

Christine Adams and Andy Taylor inserted tracking chips in 20 fish in mid-July. They are hoping to use the data gathered to create a better understanding of the lives of Atlantic sturgeon.

The two biology students regularly hop in a flat-bottomed fishing boat to check on the fish and track their progress along the river systems between Fredericton and Hampton.

"Our tracking equipment is all in there. It's the grey box. That's our VR100 [receiver], so that's what we plug our directional tracker and our omni-directional tracker into and that's what picks up all the signals," Adams said.

Slow return to ocean

The sturgeon are not behaving as they'd originally anticipated, Taylor said.

They found the sturgeon do not return to the ocean immediately after spawning, but continue to spend some time up river. The fish arrived July 27 and are still in the rivers. The students are not sure why that is.

"We expected that the fish would be going upstream and would spend two or three days at the spawning site and would quickly return to the ocean, because they don't feed during spawning," he said. "Seeing them hang around for so long is a bit of a surprise."

The student researchers are measuring several factors that could affect fish movement, including the depth and salinity of the water.

"We'll see if there's any commonalities between all of the data that we've collected and which regions of the river they seem to be hanging out at," Taylor said. "The more we know about the fish, the more you can help conserve and protect them."

Both biology students will be heading back to school soon, but Taylor will continue checking on the sturgeon until early October.

"Seeing fish move anywhere is exciting, just to see what they're doing. Every day, you wonder whether they'll be here still or whether they'll be gone or upstream," he said.

"You can really monitor, and so we'll know the day that they'll leave or the day that they go upstream."