Use of submersible PIT antennas to augment endangered fish active-capture surveys

(with background on use of PIT technology to monitor endangered fish in the Upper Colorado/San Juan rivers)

Dave Speas, USBRPeter MacKinnon, Utah State University

Julie Howard and Katie Creighton, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources

PIT Tag Workshop, Stevenson, WAJan 27-29, 2015

Razorback Sucker Colorado Pikeminnow

Humpback Chub Bonytail

RZB, CPM, BTL

HBC only

RZB, CPM only

“Traditional” usage (199? – present): Capturing/marking, recapture/scanning of individual fish (pop. est., movement,

growth, etc)

+

-

+

-

+

-

+

-4 X 6v batteries

7F723A4188

Multiplexer

Data logger

Design guidelines: Prentice et al. (NOAA, NMFS)

Cumulative number of PIAs in the Upper Basin/San Juan regions (approx.)

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 20140

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

4

7

6

11

PIA Origins

SJRIPUCRIP3 spp. (States)Sec. 7UCRIP/Sec. 7

3

3

8

1

1

3

PIA Monitoring Purpose

Entrainment

Passage

Tributaries

Spawning

Add'l resight

Habitat/Wetlands

White R (use of tributaries)

Price R (use of tributaries)

Dolores R (UT; use of tributaries)

Dolores R (CO; use of tributaries)

San Rafael R (use of tributaries)

McElmo/Yellowjacket Cr. (UT/CO; use of tributaries)

Maybell Canal (entrainment evaluation)

Green River Canal (entrainment evaluation)

Hogback Diversion (entrainment evaluation)

Tusher Wash (pending; use of fish passage structures)Price-Stubb Diversion (use of fish passage structures)

PNM weir/passage (use of fish passage structures)

Stewart Lake (use of restored wetlands)

San Juan River (use of restored habitats)

Stirrup wetland (use of restored wetlands)

Middle Green R (spawning evaluation)

2008: First PIAs in the upper basinStirrup Wetland near Ouray, UT: Use of restored wetlands by endangered fish

San Rafael R., UT: Use of tributaries by T/E fish

Use of PIA to monitor fish passages (Price Stubb Diversion nr Palisade, CO)

Use of a PIA to monitor fish entrainment (Maybell Ditch, CO)

Use of PIA to monitor spawning razorback sucker (Green River nr Jensen, UT)

Other Applications: Floating Surveys (San Juan River, Green River, Yampa River)

Most recently: Use of submersible PIT antennas to augment endangered fish active-

capture surveys

Humpback Chub Gila cypha

Desolation and Gray Canyons, UT

Methods• Three mark/recapture trips conducted per year• Two years of M/R then two years without• Antenna trials conducted Sept 16-23, 2014 during routine M/R sampling

trip• 5 submersible antennas deployed for ~24 h sets within vicinity of

conventional sampling gear (trammel nets, hoop nets, electrofishing)• 6 sites sampled per trip (4 fixed, 2 random)

Sampling concerns:• Low recapture rates result in low capture probability, precision of

estimate• Impacts of trammel net capture on humpback chub

←

←←

←

←

←

Trammel/hoop net

Submersible PIA

Preliminary Results

Unique fish captured/detected by gear typeGear RZB HBC CPM BTL All species

Trammel Net 10 31 2 1 48

Hoop Net 0 5 0 0 5

Electrofishing 0 1 0 0 1

Antenna only 15 6 1 0 22

Total 25 43 3 1 72

% resightings from antenna

only

60% 14% 33% 0% 31%

• 83% of all antenna deployments detected at least one fish• 67% of detections occurred between 7 PM and 7 AM• 78% of fish detected by antennas were not captured by other

gear types (trammel/hoop nets, electrofishing)

Preliminary Conclusions

• Additional resight capabilities afforded by PIAs warrants more use in M/R investigations

• Additional resight data tends to increase probability of capture and precision of M/R estimate (K. Bestgen, Colorado State University, pers. comm.)

• Detections of non-target endangered fish species useful in other investigations (esp. razorback sucker).

• Extra boat/personnel required (1 boat, 1 motor, 2 people)

Next Steps“Leap Frog” design

Week 1: Mark humpback chub, deploy submersibles in sample areas or in unsampled areas

Week 2: off river; antennas operating until batteries die

Week 3: M/R humback chub, retrieve submersibles and switch batteries ; move submersibles or reset in place

Week 4: offWeek 5: Final M/R run; retrieve submersibles

AcknowledgementsMark McKinstry, USBRTravis Francis, USFWS

Kevin Bestgen, Colorado State University