Abstract
The whitespotted eagle ray Aetobatus narinari is a tropical to warm‐temperate benthopelagic batoid that ranges widely throughout the western Atlantic Ocean. Despite conservation concerns for the species, its vertical habitat use and diving behaviour remain unknown. Patterns and drivers in depth distribution of A. narinari were investigated at two separate locations—western North Atlantic (Islands of Bermuda) and Eastern Gulf of Mexico (Sarasota, Florida, USA). Between 2010 and 2014, seven pop‐up satellite archival tags (PSATs) were attached to A. narinari using three methods: a through‐tail suture; external tail‐band; and through‐wing attachment. Retention time ranged from 0–180 days, with tags attached via the through‐tail method retained longest. Tagged rays spent the majority of time (82.85 ± 12.17% S.D.) within the upper 10 m of the water column and, with one exception, no rays travelled deeper than ~26 m. One Bermuda ray recorded a maximum depth of 50.5 m suggesting that these animals make excursions off the fore‐reef slope of the Bermuda Platform. Individuals occupied deeper depths (7.42 ± 3.99 m S.D.) during the day versus night (4.90 ± 2.89 m S.D), which may be explained by foraging and/or predator avoidance. Each individual experienced a significant difference in depth and temperature distributions over the diel cycle. There was evidence that mean hourly depth was best described by location and individual variation using a generalized additive mixed model approach. This is the first study to compare depth distributions of A. narinari from different locations and describe the thermal habitat for this species. Our study highlights the importance of region in describing A. narinari depth use, which may be important when developing management plans, whilst demonstrating that diel patterns appear to hold across individuals.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 89-101 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Journal of Fish Biology |
| Volume | 98 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 28 2020 |
Funding
Funding Information Funding for the Bermuda component was provided by a grant from the Bermuda Zoological Society to M.J.A. as well as the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation. We dedicate this study to the late Dr Neil Burnie, who provided his unwavering passion and guidance to the work carried out in Bermuda. Funding for the Bermuda component was provided by a grant from the Bermuda Zoological Society to M.J.A. as well as the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation. Field operations were supported by C. Aming, C. Flook, D. Ward, C. Bridgewater, A. Smith, J. Singleton and L. Rheinin. Additional logistical support was coordinated by the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies and Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (FAU-HBOI). We thank Mote Marine Laboratory field operations staff P. Hull, D. Dougherty, G. Byrd, K. Wilkinson and J. Morris for their assistance with this work. Funding for the Sarasota component was provided by Georgia Aquarium, National Aquarium, Disney Conservation Fund and Save Our Seas Foundation. Special thanks to A. Hansell and B. DeGroot for their insightful feedback on the manuscript. This paper is the product of the 2020 spring semester graduate class, ?Introduction to Biologging and Biotelemetry? (BSC 6936-004), taught by L.R.B. and M.J.A. at FAU-HBOI. We dedicate this study to the late Dr Neil Burnie, who provided his unwavering passion and guidance to the work carried out in Bermuda. Funding for the Bermuda component was provided by a grant from the Bermuda Zoological Society to M.J.A. as well as the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation. Field operations were supported by C. Aming, C. Flook, D. Ward, C. Bridgewater, A. Smith, J. Singleton and L. Rheinin. Additional logistical support was coordinated by the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies and Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (FAU‐HBOI). We thank Mote Marine Laboratory field operations staff P. Hull, D. Dougherty, G. Byrd, K. Wilkinson and J. Morris for their assistance with this work. Funding for the Sarasota component was provided by Georgia Aquarium, National Aquarium, Disney Conservation Fund and Save Our Seas Foundation. Special thanks to A. Hansell and B. DeGroot for their insightful feedback on the manuscript. This paper is the product of the 2020 spring semester graduate class, “Introduction to Biologging and Biotelemetry” (BSC 6936‐004), taught by L.R.B. and M.J.A. at FAU‐HBOI.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Bermuda Zoological Society | |
| Disney Conservation Fund and Save Our Seas Foundation | |
| Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute | |
| Georgia Aquarium | |
| Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies | |
| National Aquarium | |
| Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation | |
| Save our Seas Foundation | BSC 6936-004 |
| National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium |
ASJC Scopus Subject Areas
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
- Aquatic Science
Keywords
- Bermuda
- Biotelemetry
- Diel vertical migration
- Elasmobranch
- Gulf of Mexico
- PSAT
- diel vertical migration
- biotelemetry
- elasmobranch
Disciplines
- Marine Biology
- Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology