Unraveling ‘big behaviors’ with hypothesis-driven telemetry experiments: the sea lamprey migration

Session: 11. - Acoustic Telemetry Applications in the Great Lakes

Michael Wagner, Michigan State University, [email protected]
Trevor Meckley, NOAA, [email protected]

Abstract

Organisms that undertake long-distance movements, such as migration, use various tactics to achieve navigation in an energy- and time-efficient manner. However, assembling an aquatic animal’s migratory strategy is more difficult than for a terrestrial migrant, as the current state of tracking technology precludes continuous underwater monitoring over 100’s – 1000’s of kilometers (vs. GPS collaring). However, by examining the animal’s movements in nature at the locations where the animal undertakes the major tasks of navigation (e.g. orientation), we may be able to assemble the sequence of movement tactics, and generate testable hypotheses about the sets of sensory information and environmental features that inform movement decisions. We report a series of acoustic telemetry experiments designed to reveal how the solitary, nocturnal sea lamprey orients to shore, traverses river plumes, and localizes the river mouth in Lake Huron.  We examined the animal’s movements during offshore orientation, along-shore search, and when entering a river plume activated with an attractant conspecific cue. We will propose a straight-forward migratory strategy for the landlocked sea lamprey that is sufficient to achieve timely entry into high quality reproductive habitat in both the Laurentian Great Lakes and the coastal ocean.

1. Keyword
migrations

2. Keyword
invasive species

3. Keyword
hydrodynamic model