PSAT Used for Trout Study on Lake Superior
For the last decade pop-up satellite tags (PSAT) have been used to track migrations of our most important marine mega fauna such as bluefin tuna, great white sharks and other underwater species. Recent technological advances in tagging have finally allowed for the same technology to be transferred to fresh water.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources in conjunction with the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has deployed a number of pop-up satellite tags to study lake trout (salvelinus namaycush) movement in Lake Superior. This is the first large scale study of any freshwater fish in Lake Superior using pop-up satellite tags and only came about through use of Desert Star Systems' innovative release mechanism that can work in both fresh and salt water.
SeaTag-MOD PSATs are very sensor heavy allowing them to collect a variety of environmental data therefore answering multiple questions at once. The data from this deployment will help answer several hypothesis including the basis of depth selection and preference amongst fish, diel vertical migrations and spawning sites.
During these deployments the SeaTag-MOD will estimate latitude and longitude locations through use of a magnetometer and solar cell light sensor. In addition the tag records depth, temperature and acceleration values. On the programmed date the tag will pop off the fish, float the surface and transmit its location via satellite. The researchers will then attempt to locate and recover the tag, when practical, to download the raw sensor recordings. Otherwise the data will be transmitted through the Argos satellite system.