PIER field notes archive

Field Notes Archive

WINTER 2010

PIER researchers conclude roosterfish tracking studies along the Costa Rica coastline. This work revealed high survivorship for post-release individuals and provides the first fine-scale movement data for this species.

SPRING 2009

PIER researchers along with NOAA fishery manager Craig Heber tag a large adult common thresher shark with a pop-off satellite archival tag. This work investigates catch-and-release mortality in the southern California thresher fishery.

FALL/WINTER 2008

PIER researchers engage in a productive field season tagging swordfish with PSATs that are modified to monitor internal body temperature. This work focuses on investigating the surface basking behavior of the swordfish and testing whether body temperature influences when they must return to the surface.

Read more about this work

SUMMER 2008

PIER Founder Tom Pfleger surgically implants an archival tag in a white seabass at Catalina Island. To-date both the PIER and Catalina Seabass Fund research teams have tagged over 40 white seabass around Catalina ranging in size from 10 to 45 lbs. These data loggers are set to record depth and temperature every minute and fetch a reward of $200 when recaptured (to report a found tag, click here). This collaborative project is focused on determining the depth distribution and temperature preferences of this important recreational and commercial species. Read more about the white seabass projects at PIER.

SPRING 2008

PIER researchers gear-up for a white seabass movement study scheduled for this Spring. Archival data loggers that record depth and temperature every minute will be deployed in adult white seabass off the coast of Southern California. This collaborative project is focused on determining the depth distribution of this important recreational and commercial species. Read more about the white seabass

WINTER 2007

PIER researchers have anchored remote hydrophones along the Southern California coastline to detect white seabass spawning sounds. The acoustic data from the hydrophones will be used to characterize spawning habitat and locations to gain a better understanding of white seabass reproductive biology. Read more about PIER's white seabass acoustic recording project

SPRING 2007

PIER researchers and collaborating scientists began an investigation on the swimming muscle physiology of the common thresher shark (Alopias vulpinus). This project investigates and compares several aspects of locomotor muscle function and design in all three species of thresher sharks. Recent field work has focused on the first in-vivo muscle movement studies on wild threshers. Read more about the thresher shark project.

WINTER 2007

PIER researchers initiated an acoustic tracking study investigating the fine-scale movements of roosterfish (Nematistius pectoralis) off the coast of Southern Costa Rica. Chugey Sepulveda, Diego Bernal, Tommy Fullam and Captain Henry Arouz tracked a 10 kg roosterfish through the surf for over 30 hours. Additionally, blood and muscle samples were taken from over 10 individuals to look at catch and release mortality in this species. Read more about PIER's roosterfish project.

FALL 2006

PIER researchers and colleagues from NMFS, UM Dartmouth, SIO, IATTC, and Dana Landing recently returned from a wahoo tagging trip along the Baja Coast. Despite adverse weather conditions and slow fishing, the team successfully deployed over 20 archival transmitters in wahoo (Acanthocybium solandri) along the “ridge”, a productive area outside of Magdalena Bay, Baja California. To-date, two wahoo re-captures have already been received, providing high-resolution temperature and depth data for this species. Read more about PIER’s wahoo tagging project

SUMMER 2006

Researchers from PIER, NOAA, and Moss Landing Marine Labs initiated a long-term study off Central California to examine seafloor habitat recovery following the impacts of bottom trawling. A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) was deployed from the NOAA ship McArthur II to collect video and still photographic data at locations inside an Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) closed area as well as in surrounding areas that continue to be actively fished. Read more about the seafloor habitat recovery project.

SPRING 2006

PIER researchers have been testing new pop-off satellite tag technologies in the field. With the help of Dr. Guy Harvey and Dr. John Graves, they were able to try out the new tags on sailfish off the coast of Costa Rica. The new tags should soon be ready for more long term deployments and will allow researchers to gather data on how fish move across oceans as well as their depth patterns during these movements. Learn more about how PIER uses pop-off satellite tags and how they work.

SPRING 2006

MARCH 2006 – PIER researchers were able to recover a pop-off satellite tag off the coast of Ensenada, Mexico. The tag released itself from a swordfish after its scheduled 90-day deployment. This swordfish was tagged in December 2005 as a part of PIERs Southern California Bight Swordfish Tagging project. As you can see by the small size, these tags are rarely recovered – but the complete data set that they provide is invaluable. Read more about how these pop-off satellite tags work

WINTER 2006

Jean-Michel Cousteau's Ocean Futures Society joined PIER as they worked on the maintenance of the acoustic receiver array at Anacapa Island. The film crew is shooting footage for Ocean Adventures, a series exploring America's National Marine Sanctuaries. Please check back in the fall for air dates and times. Click here to read about PIER's Channel Islands research.

FALL 2005

PIER researchers recently completed a saturation mission in the underwater habitat Aquarius, where they lived 50 feet beneath the surface for seven days. They put out over 40 acoustic tags in grouper, hogfish, and blue parrotfish and will track their movements over the next 6 to 12 months. Click here to learn more about this project.