Fish telemetry in aquaculture: review and perspectives

Abstract

The assessment of the behaviour or physiology of cultured fish has always been difficult due to the timing of sampling, differences between experimental and aquaculture conditions and to methodological bias arising from repeated fish handling. The development of biotelemetry techniques offers a wide range of possibilities to improve both production and management in aquaculture through monitoring of behaviour or physiology of free-swimming fish inside their culture environment. Thus knowing how key parameters are changing can allow faster adjustment of feeding times to activity rhythms, more objective identification of the preference/tolerance margins towards environmental variables and precise assessment (from 'the fish's point of view') of the impact of environmental or operational stressors on fish. This paper briefly reviews the techniques that might be applied in aquaculture and focuses on relevant systems and estimators of fish activity: movements, vertical distribution, use of demand-feeders, muscular activity and heart rate. Species or size-related limitations and use of automatic monitoring stations are reviewed and evaluated. Perspectives of integrated biomonitoring in aquaculture are discussed, using telemetered fish as reliable probes in the detection of abnormal situations such as changes of water quality or altered environments.

Home range dynamics of the American lobster,Homarus americanus

“…The smallest animal tracked (62 mm CL) weighed $220 g; therefore the transmitter was $1.3% of its body weight. This is well within the generally accepted value of 2% body weight that has been established for fish tracking studies (Baras and Lagardere 1995;Jepsen et al 2002). We observed no apparent difference in the movements of lobsters tagged using this method in comparison to other lobsters in the vicinity that were not tagged.…”

Evaluation of surgery procedures for tagging eel Anguilla anguilla (L.) with biotelemetry transmitters

“…Among the range of techniques available for marking or tagging fish, telemetry tags undoubtedly represent the most powerful tools as they permit to track the movements of the fish, and provide information on its environment or physiology, when appropriate sensors are coupled to the transmitter (Winter, 1983;Priede & Swift, 1992;Baras & Lagardère, 1995;. However, telemetry tags have a substantial size and weight (> 0.8 g and > 1.3 g in the air, for radio and acoustic tags, respectively), due to the electronic circuitry and battery required to power the acoustic or radio signal.…”

Effects of stocking density on haematological functions of juvenile African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) fed varying crude protein levels

“…Crowding is a common aquaculture practice used to manage water usage or increase fish stocking density (Baras and Lagardere, 1995). However, the use of high stocking density as a technique to maximize water usage and thus increase stock production has also been shown to have adverse effect on growth.…”