Abstract

The use of actively or passively transmitting tags in biological research is often referred to as biotelemetry, or merely telemetry. Depending on research aim several methods can be applied to receive reliable information and telemetry is a powerful tool for monitoring habitats, mobility, activity and behaviour of fish in rivers, lakes and at sea. Passive tagging in the field normally generates a limited amount of data and relies on relatively large tagging groups, while active transmitters provide more comprehensive information on individuals in their natural environment that can be controlled with high precision. On the other hand, since active transmitters emit signal that rely on batteries this leads to that they have a limited life expectation which much be considered in the studies. The duration is dependent on the battery capacity and the amount of energy propagated out from the transmitter, where large transmitter batteries allow longer study periods than small transmitters do. The signals from traditional active transmitters can be either pulsed or coded. The pulsed signals are continues unique frequencies and pulse rates, while coded have numerous repeated pulse rates on the same frequency. So far, most biotelemetry studies have focused on salmon riverine migration in order to describe various aspects in fish migration behaviour, yet more advanced telemetry techniques can be used to measure swimming activity or physiological and energetic status of individual fish. Moreover, recently adapted telemetry techniques have been developed to study various fish species and size classes. This report is the literature-based assignment from the postgraduate course on the workshop “Positional and physiological telemetry in aquatic research: perspectives from Scandinavia and North America”, held 6-10th of December 2004 at Department of Aquaculture, SLU Umeå, Sweden. The aim with this work is to give an overview of telemetric methods used in fisheries research, with emphasis on reviewing studies carried out in Scandinavia and North America

Published in

Rapport / Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, Vattenbruksinstitutionen
2006, number: 48
Publisher: Vattenbruksinstitutionen, SLU

SLU Authors

• Östergren, Johan

  • Department of Aquaculture, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Rivinoja, Peter

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

UKÄ Subject classification

Fish and Aquacultural Science


Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/8883