Nov. 30, 2012
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GULFPORT, Miss.--Researchers with ERDC’s Environmental Laboratory (EL) Fish Ecology Team, along with staff at the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, are working on a collaborative telemetry project to address Gulf sturgeon movement and habitat use within the project area of the Gulfport harbor expansion project in Gulfport, Miss.
Both teams spent time this past summer and fall netting and tagging Gulf sturgeon, a federally endangered species, within the Pascagoula and Pearl Rivers and equipping captured fish with telemetry tags.
In addition to tagging, a 19-remote receiver array was deployed around the Gulfport harbor project area, Sep. 10-11.
To date, there have been more than 2,000 detections documented – each receiver is recording at least one detection. Five telemetry tagged sturgeon were detected within the array. The array will be deployed continuously over the next two years.
Noted movement patterns exhibited by respective Gulf sturgeon life history stages and source-river data will add significantly to the knowledge base of what is currently known about Gulf sturgeon populations in western Gulf of Mexico drainages.
Learn more about this program at http://www.dmr.ms.gov/news-a-events/recent-news/372-12-60-jgl.