Abstract

Acoustic telemetry represents the state-of-the-art technology for monitoring behaviour of aquatic organisms in the wild. Yet, the performance of different systems is rarely evaluated across species and environments. In this study, we evaluate two different acoustic telemetry systems, a commonly used analogue pulse-position-modulation-based system (VEMCO PPM) and a newly developed high-residency digital binary phase shift key-based system (VEMCO HR2), in ability to track downstream migrating Atlantic salmon smolt (Salmo salar) and European eel (Anguilla anguilla) around hydropower facilities. High-precision GPS were used to evaluate precision and accuracy of hyperbolically positioned data derived from each system. The PPM-based system had higher detection range than HR2 and generated more positions per transmission for eels migrating close to bottom than for surface-oriented salmon smolts. HR2 generated tenfold more positions per time unit than PPM, were less sensitive to noise, achieved submetre positional precision, and were considerably more accurate than PPM-derived positions after filtering. HR2 was deemed more capable than PPM in fine-scale positioning at moderate distances at hydropower facilities.

Published in

Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
2020, Volume: 77, number: 1, pages: 177-187
Publisher: CANADIAN SCIENCE PUBLISHING

SLU Authors

• Brodin, Tomas

  • Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Leonardsson, Kjell

  • Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Hellström, Gustav

  • Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Fish and Aquacultural Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2019-0058

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/104019