Satellite tagging of swordfish in the Southern California Bight

Objectives:

• Record the fine-scale movements (vertical and horizontal) of free-swimming swordfish and determine how they compare to other SCB pelagic species.
• Investigate the environmental conditions that lead to increased basking rates (i.e., tide, moon phase, time of day, water temperature).
• Identify depths in which swordfish segregate and propose future recommendations for increasing gear specificity for swordfish.

Swordfish basking at the surface off of Southern California.

Swordfish are tagged from PIER's R/V Malolo, which is equipped with an 18-foot swordfish plank

Swordfish basking at the surface just prior to being tagged with a pop-off archival satellite transmitter (seen in the foreground)