Evaluation of acoustic transmitter implantation and determination of post-translocation behaviour of largemouth bassMicropterus salmoidesin a South African impoundment

Dispersal and population-level mortality of Micropterus salmoides associated with catch and release tournament angling in a South African reservoir

“…The tagging data also suggested similar behaviour to that of ten acoustically tagged fish in a displacement experiment conducted in Wriggleswade Dam by Huchzermeyer et al (2013). In that experiment, most of the fish remained at the release site for two weeks, after which they dispersed various distances through an array of passive receivers.…”

“…The climate of the area is moderately temperate, with mean monthly air temperature ranging from 13.2 • C in July (austral winter) to 20.9 • C in February (austral summer) (SAWS, 2012). Wriggleswade Dam is a popular recreational angling and bass tournament venue (Huchzermeyer et al, 2013) surrounded by privately owned shoreline, resulting in limited subsistence fishing.…”

“…Telemetry studies indicate that dispersal following relocation can be slow, with some fish taking three months to disperse 2 km from a release site in Lake Martin, USA (Hunter and Maceina, 2008), while in Lake Mead, USA, the fish had not moved further than 3.5 km from their release site 43 days after displacement (Wilde and Paulson, 2003). In contrast, an acoustic telemetry experiment simulating tournament displacement of 10 fish in Wriggleswade Dam, South Africa, demonstrated that largemouth bass relocated over a distance of 4.3 km and dispersed rapidly following release (Huchzermeyer et al, 2013). Therefore, Wriggleswade Dam was an interesting case study to investigate post-release dispersal of M. salmoides.…”

Movement behaviour of largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides in a South African impoundment

“…Sammons and Maceina 2005;Slipke and Maceina 2007), only one previous study has been conducted in South Africa (Huchzermeyer et al 2013). Huchzermeyer et al (2013) tagged 10 largemouth bass (310-385 mm FL) with individually coded transmitters, relocated them to a common release site, and then monitored their movement in Wriggleswade Dam for seven weeks using an array of five moored acoustic data-logging receivers. The study, which was conducted during the austral autumn and winter, demonstrated that relocated fish dispersed rapidly after release, and that at the onset of winter the tagged largemouth bass resided in the deeper regions of the study area.…”

“…An opportunity to investigate environmental influences in habitat use was provided by the Huchzermeyer et al (2013) study. At the conclusion of that study, the acoustic-receiver array remained deployed for a further seven months to monitor the movement of the fish until the end of the useable lifespan of the transmitters that had been implanted into fish.…”