At ETN, researchers use telemetry to understand how animals move across different spatial and temporal scales, guiding the establishment of marine protected areas and the adjustment of fishing regulations.

#AquaticTelemetry #TrackingNotSlacking #WorldFisheriesDay

📷: AdobeStock

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Telemetry is a powerful tool for tracking the movements of marine species, providing data that can inform their conservation and management.

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The purpose of this day is to highlight not only the importance of fishing for many communities, but also the need of sustainable fishing practices that safeguard species, their habitats, and the people involved in this activity.

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opening previously unreachable areas and intensifying fishing pressure globally. In turn, this has resulted in increased over-exploitation of marine resources and degradation of habitats.

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Learn more about ISRAs here: www.sharkrayareas.org

An interactive map of the 124 ISRAs can be found here: sharkrayareas.org/e-atlas/

📷: AdobeStock

Areas were also identified based on their distinctiveness, for example where a species displays a unique behaviour, or if they supported a high diversity of elasmobranchs.

ISRAs identify portions of habitat that are important to one or more elasmobranch species. Examples of this are areas where vulnerable or range-restricted species occur, areas for reproduction, feeding, resting, or where individuals aggregate.

𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫
Jena Edwards just finished her PhD at Wageningen University (congrats!) and is now working as a postdoctoral researcher with the Ocean Tracking Network in Halifax, Canada.
We wish you all the best for your new chapter, Jena!

#trackingnotslacking

Jena: "Since it is the first study of this kind in that area, there are more questions than answers. For example: we have a gap in acoustic detections between Jan - Feb, which is the mullets’ assumed spawning period. So the question remains: where do the mullets spawn?”

🐟 And what did you find out?
Jena: “From the data we collected, thinlip grey mullet appear to be more resilient to freshwater than thicklip grey mullet, because we detected one thinlip individual in Lake IJssel.

🐟 What was challenging?
Jena: “Mullets are feisty—they almost jumped out of their holding tank several times! Also, finding mullets was challenging. Especially thinlip grey mullet showed large individual differences in movement behaviour, so drawing general conclusions is challenging.”

🐟 How did you study the mullets’ movements?
Jena: “In 2021 and 2022, we tagged 122 thicklip and thinlip grey mullets, of which 86 individuals were detected by the extensive network of acoustic receivers maintained in the Dutch North Sea and Wadden Sea.”

🐟 Why mullets?
Jena: “Mullets have drastically declined in recent years in the Dutch North Sea (the fishery is basically closed now), so we wondered if the Wadden Sea might play a role in the Mullets’ decline?”

🐟 Why the Wadden Sea?
Jena: “In contrast to migratory birds, it remains unclear if—or how—the unique ecosystem of the Wadden Sea is used by migratory fish.”

A total of 80 receivers, deployed across 2 lines will help us uncover what's happening beneath the waves in the biggest inland sea of the world: 40 acoustic receivers on the seabed in a line between Sweden and Finland, and another 40 in a line across the Sea of Åland. 🌊✨

#BalticSeaTrackingNetwork

As you can see, things are complakeated, but researchers from all over the world are working to keep lakes thriving.

#TrackingNotSlacking #AquaticTelemetry #WorldLakeDay

These threats are accentuated by the fragmented nature of these habitats, since lakes are spread out in separate basins, and the smaller size of animal populations compared with those in the marine environment. As a result, 1 in every 4freshwater species is thought to be threatened with extinction.

However, these ecologically and economically important environments and the species inhabiting them are under severe anthropogenic pressures from pollution, invasive species, agriculture, construction (e.g., dams), and water extraction.