Movement behavior of the California halibut in a restored Southern California wetland

The California halibut, Paralichthys califarnicus, is an economically important teleost that utilizes estuaries as nursery habitat. Population surveys suggest there is no size segregation for this species within the restored Huntington Beach Wetlands (HBW) despite differences in benthic habitat type, vegetation cover, and seasonal water temperature. Acoustic telemetry was used to characterize long-term movement and finescale habitat use of subadult halibut in the restored estuary. No actively tracked fish (n = 9) left the HBW during the 10-day observation period, regardless of season. Individuals established home ranges covering only a small portion of the available HBW (range: 1.3--22%) and utilized coarse sediments and eelgrass edge habitat disproportionately more than their availability. Areas most frequently used were channels of higher water flow. Longer-term passively tracked halibut remained within the HBW for up to 5 months. Emigration in these individuals may have been induced by dramatic environmental changes.