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Sail-World.com : NSW Researchers chip in to better understanding of fish migration
NSW Researchers chip in to better understanding of fish migration
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Industry & Investment NSW researchers at Narrandera Fisheries Centre are helping unlock the mystery of native fish migration by tuning into tiny microchips implanted in fish like Australian bass, Bully mullet, freshwater herring and bullrout; and then monitoring their every move 24 hours a day.
'Using tiny microchips we are learning more about fish migration by studying their travels one-byone,' Minister for Primary Industries, Steve Whan said.
'Industry & Investment NSW’s latest work centres on an improved system that requires less maintenance, but achieves greater traceability through clearer reception.
'Antennas strategically placed throughout river systems continuously scan for microchips and report on the location of tagged fish.
'Microchipped fish are tagged for life and the reader systems operate 24/7 which means researchers can accurately look for relationships between changes in fish migration rates and environmental factors such as flow, temperature or water quality.
'By installing the system in fishways where we know fish will migrate, we can collect information on the time of migration, the date, how long it takes fish to migrate and the number of migrations a fish makes throughout its lifetime.'
Minister Whan said hundreds of fish had been monitored in both the Nepean and Shoalhaven Rivers using this science refined at Narrandera by a team led by Dr Lee Baumgartner and Dr Meaghan Rourke.
These scientists worked closely with Victorian-based company, Karltek, to test the company’s system, which will soon be installed in the Murray-Darling Basin.
'The new Karltek system offers greater traceability than in the past by using Passive Integrated Transponders (PIT) tags that come in two sizes (11mm and 23mm),' the scientists said.
'We are excited to be working with this company on such as progressive project which has implications on science not just here but around the world.
'Previous fish tagging systems worked well, but required substantial maintenance to keep them operational and were only-suited to larger tags.
'Antennas needed to be frequently tuned up to three times a year to ensure they optimally scan for fish and they could unfortunately only read large tags, not both, which limited studies to larger fish.
'Now, after substantial prototype development, a world-first system known as KLK 5000, automatically tunes itself and can read both large and small tags.
'The availability of these systems will help us learn more about fish migrations by allowing us to study many more species, as well as reduce costs by eliminating a need for ongoing maintenance.'
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by NSW Dept Primary Industries - Fisheries
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1:59 AM Sun 11 Jul 2010 GMT
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