The Use of Electronic Tags to Study Fish Movement: a case study with yellowtail flounder off New England

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Archival tags enhance the interpretability and power of tagging studies, as illustrated by results from a mark-recapture study of yellowtail flounder off New England. Until recently, the well-studied yellowtail flounder was thought to be a 'sedentary' fish, feeding on epibenthic fauna and limited to relatively shallow, sandy habitats. This strict habitat preference and the discontinuous distributions of such habitats were considered to limit movement among offshore banks and shelves, thereby maintaining geographic stock structure. However, recent information obtained from data-storage tags documents frequent off-bottom movements associated with movement to different habitats. Similar to results from historical tagging studies for yellowtail, a mark-recapture study off New England that began in 2003 confirms a low frequency of movement among stock areas. However, the movement likely involves passive drift in midwater currents, similar to patterns observed for other flatfish species. Therefore, the use of electronic tags reveals an important aspect of yellowtail behavior that was not apparent after decades of intense research.