TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL MOVEMENT PATTERNS OF STRIPED BASS IN THE MINAS PASSAGE, BAY OF FUNDY by Freya M. Keyser Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Science with Honours in Biology Acadia University April, 2013 © Copyright by Freya M. Keyser, 2013 This thesis by Freya M. Keyser is accepted in its present form by the Department of Biology as satisfying the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science with Honours Approved by the Thesis Supervisor __________________________ ____________________ Dr. Anna Redden Date Approved by the Head of the Department __________________________ ____________________ Dr. Soren Bondrup-Nielsen Date Approved by the Honours Committee __________________________ ____________________ Dr. Pritam Ranjan Date ii I, Freya Keyser, grant permission to the University Librarian at Acadia University to reproduce, loan or distribute copies of my thesis in microform, paper or electronic formats on a non-profit basis. I, however, retain the copyright in my thesis. _________________________________ Signature of Author _________________________________ Date iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would not have been able to complete this project successfully without the support of many groups and individuals. First and foremost, I must thank my supervisor Dr. Anna Redden. I am very grateful that she welcomed me into her research program, and for her unwavering support throughout this endeavour. Thanks are also due to Acadia University, the Offshore Energy Research Association of Nova Scotia (OERANS), the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy (FORCE), the Acadia Centre for Estuarine Research (ACER) and the Ocean Tracking Network (OTN) for providing funding and research support to this project. I thank Jeremy Broome not only for sharing part of his Masters project with me, but also for assisting with data analysis, sharing articles, leading fieldwork, proofreading, and for his patience in answering my endless questions. Additional fieldwork assistance for this project was provided by members of the Striped Bass Anglers Association of Nova Scotia (SBAANS), the late Croyden Wood Jr. and his crew, Duncan Bates and Stephane Kirchoff (OTN), and Colin Buhariwalla and Matthew Baker (ACER). I also thank Dr. Richard Karsten for providing modelled current speed estimates that were used in my analysis of data. Another thank-you goes to my labmates for their support: Pete, Kaycee, Matthew and Jeremy. In addition to sharing R codes and fieldwork tips, they also provided encouragement, advice, and laughter along the way. I am lucky to have found myself in such good company! Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for letting me talk about my thesis way too much, and for their unconditional support. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................... IV! LIST OF TABLES.......................................................................................................... VI! LIST OF FIGURES.......................................................................................................VII! ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................... IX! 1.0 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................1! 1.1 MIGRATORY FISH ........................................................................................................1! 1.2 TIDAL POWER DEVELOPMENTS AND IMPACTS ON FISH ................................................3! 1.3 ASSESSING POTENTIAL RISK OF FISH-TURBINE INTERACTION ......................................5! 1.4 USE OF ACOUSTIC TELEMETRY TO MONITOR FISH MOVEMENTS...................................6! 1.5 RISK TO STRIPED BASS (MORONE SAXATILIS)................................................................8! 1.6 STUDY OBJECTIVES ...................................................................................................10! 2.0 SITE DESCRIPTION AND METHODOLOGY....................................................12! 2.1 SITE DESCRIPTION: THE MINAS PASSAGE..................................................................12! 2.2 ACOUSTIC RECEIVER LOCATIONS AND MOORINGS.....................................................14! 2.3 ACOUSTIC TRANSMITTERS ........................................................................................17! 2.4 FISH TAGGING ...........................................................................................................18! 2.5 DATA ANALYSIS........................................................................................................19! 2.6 LIMITATIONS OF ACOUSTIC TELEMETRY IN THE MINAS PASSAGE .............................20! 3.0 RESULTS...................................................................................................................23! 3.1 OVERVIEW OF DETECTIONS.......................................................................................23! 3.2 MOVEMENT THROUGH THE MINAS PASSAGE (CROSSINGS) .......................................24! 3.3 TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL MOVEMENT PATTERNS.......................................................25! 3.4 DETECTION DEPTHS ..................................................................................................39! 4.0 DISCUSSION.............................................................................................................43! 4.1 SIZE-RELATED ACTIVITY OF STRIPED BASS................................................................43! 4.2 EFFECTS OF DIURNAL, TIDAL, AND LUNAR CYCLES ON MOVEMENTS .........................43! 4.3 SEASONAL TIMING OF MIGRATIONS...........................................................................45! 4.4 SWIMMING SPEEDS....................................................................................................46! 4.5 SWIMMING DEPTH PATTERNS ....................................................................................47! 4.6 CONCLUSIONS BASED ON VEMCO ACOUSTIC TELEMETRY.......................................47! 4.7 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH .........................................................49! REFERENCES ................................................................................................................50! APPENDIX A...................................................................................................................55! v LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Minas Passage acoustic receiver deployment and recovery information from 2011. Receivers were numbered based on their location in the Minas Passage, from north to south. Receivers were recovered one of three ways: during a recovery mission (“R”), found floating by fishers (“F”) or washed-up on shore (“W”)..........17! Table 2. Summary of striped bass tagged in 2011. Sizes were measured as fork lengths. Ages were calculated based on size using the equation y = 5.1622x + 18.865, where x and y were age (in year) and fork length (in centimeters), respectively (Jeremy Broome, unpublished data). Mean ages of Stewiacke and Grand Pré fish, at the time of tagging, were 10 ± 1 year and 5 ± 1 year, respectively.........................................19! Table 3. Summary data and number of individual adult ("Stewiacke") and sub-adult ("Grand Pré") fish detected between June and December of 2011, in the Minas Passage.......................................................................................................................23! Table 4. Number of detections per month ("J, J, A, S, O, N" = June, July, August, September, October, and November, respectively) and total for adult (Stewiacke) and sub-adult (Grand Pré) fish at each array ("A" = Acadia University Line, "F" = FORCE line, "M" = Minas Passage Line).................................................................24! Table 5. Number of fish detected per month (“J, J, A, S, O, N” = June, July, August, September, October and November, respectively) and total for adult (Stewiacke) and sub-adult (Grand Pré) fish, at each array (“AUL” = Acadia University Line; “FORCE” = FORCE line; “MPS” = Minas Passage Line). ......................................24! Table 6. Data summary of fish crossings for the Minas Passage. A crossing was identified by two consecutive detections on either side of the passage. Standard deviations are shown for each average current speed (m/s) and average swimming speed (m/s, Body Length/s). .........................................................................................................25! Table 7. Data summary of direct fish crossings (t ! 60 minutes) in the Minas Passage. A crossing was identified by two consecutive detections on either side of the passage. Standard deviations are shown for each average time (minutes) and body size (fork length in metres). .......................................................................................................25! Table 8. Kruskal-Wallis tests and 2 sample, unpooled t-tests were performed to identify significant differences between the number of detections per hour that occurred during the day (“D”) and during the night (“N”), and the number of crossings per hour............................................................................................................................27! Table 9. A Kruskal-Wallis test and 2 sample, unpooled t-test was performed on the number of detections of Stewiacke fish that occurred during ebb tides (“E”) vs. flood tides