Development And Utilization Of Biotelemetry Of Sebastes Schlegeli And Sea Cucumber Apostichopus Japonicas Selenka

Artificial reefs as a widely used marine habitat restoration method, are massivelyconstructed in dameged coastal areas, habitat with rare/endangered species and keyecological areas. Work have been fruitful with artificial reefs on stock enhancement,environment conservation and habitat restoration. However, assessment of therestoration is a major problem. Biotelemetry is a new research method utilized inecology study with unique advantages, but has not been recognized well indomestic.This study focused on the development of biotelemetry on Sebastes schlegeliand sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicas. Specification selection of biotelemetrysystem, array design and fish tagging method were studied. Residency, movements andcircadian rhythm of Sebastes schlegeli in natural environment were monitored usingbiotelemetry. An external tagging method of sea cucumber was developed for itsbiotelemetry related study. Major findings are as follows:1) Rules of selecting receivers and transmitters were investigated based on theformation and specification of the biotelemetry system. Array design and specific caseswere discussed based on the classification of intended data. Anesthetization and taggingmethod of the fish were studied.2)80%of released individuals inhabited in the monitoring array during the study period.Residency of tagged fish did not show correlation with their length or weight and wassignificantly higher in rocky bottom than in other habitats. A few individuals displayeddistinct circadian rhythm by return movements to southeastern water around sunriseand sunset, indicating that although of high site fidelity, this species tend to optimizetheir habitat. Replaced fish showed distinct homing behavior and returned to their original captured place in a short time.3) A few external tagging method were studied including body cavity implantation,somatic embedding, spine and somatic piercing, somatic affix and calcareous ringnesting. The retention rate of tags was75.8%and93.3%in10days and3months forjuvenile and grown sea cucumber, respectively, using calcareous ring nesting. Furtherstudy was needed to evaluate the method’s effects on growth and other activities.Studies on ethology of reef area species represented by Sebastes schlegeli are beneficialfor the assessment of existing artificial reefs and marine ranching and guidance forfuture construction design, enhancing the marine habitat restoration. As to its hugepotential and advantages in ethology and ecology, biotelemetry should be utilized instudies of other species to overcome the obstacles from indoor stimulation to naturalenvironment for more accurate and persuasive research resluts. Studies based onindividuals are hard to carry out due to the lack of external tagging method for seacucumber. With the external tagging method developed in this study, issues on itsbehavior and stock dynamic could be addressed, contributing to the basic biologystudies, ecology studies and industry as well.