This three-part video series features the new and innovative satellite tagging research that scientists are conducting on captive mahi-mahi to research how the larger pop-up satellite archival tags (PSATs) affect mahi-mahi swim performance and behavior. Wildlife Computers, who developed the PSAT tags, designed a scaled-down, non-data collecting “mini” tag specifically for the Relationships of Effects of Cardiac Outcomes in fish for Validation of Ecological Risk (RECOVER) consortium’s research.
This experiment and the data produced is beneficial for interpreting data collected during the MAHI cruise, a 17-day Gulf of Mexico research cruise in June 2019. During the cruise, 50 wild-caught mahi-mahi were tagged with PSAT and exposed to control (seawater) and experimental (oil-exposed seawater) recovery tanks before being released back into the Gulf of Mexico.
This series is comprised of three short parts:
- Part One: Mini Mahi Tags introduces master’s student C.J. McGuigan, whose hatchery research assesses the behavioral changes and metabolism of captive mahi carrying the satellite tags.
- Part Two: Tunnels and Tags highlights how RECOVER uses the mini PSAT to asses the metabolic cost of carrying a PSAT tag through swim chamber respirometry.
- Part Three: Behavior and Tags highlights the behavioral impacts of satellite tags on captive mahi-mahi through video analysis captured using a GoPro camera affixed to the top of a large research tank.