Scientist's Log Book: A weekly look behind the scenes

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Jim Vasslides

With the arrival of spring we are finding more of our tagged fish returning to the estuary. During mobile tracking today we caught up with “The Intimidator” in the vicinity of Swan Bay, as well as Little Bass #4, Little Bass #5, and Little Bass #10. Little Bass #9 and Little Bass #11 were located at the mouth of the Wading River, and Little Bass #1 was tracked up the Wading. Little Bass #2 was the furthest fish tracked upriver today, near Clark’s Landing/Hog Island. All of the fish found during mobile tracking (with the exception of Little Bass #5) were recorded during the week on the Parkway Bridge hydrophone, indicating that they are not “hunkered down” in their holes but are still moving up and down the river. Jules Sr. continues to appear on the Lower Bank Bridge hydrophone, with Little Bass #5 and Little Bass #2 also frequenting this area throughout the week. We have some battery changes, other routine maintenance, and a hydrophone redeployment on tap for later this week or early next, so keep any eye out for us on the water.

Jim Vasslides

We caught a break today with the weather and available staff and managed to get two boat crews out onto the water mobile tracking, one upriver and the other onto the bay. The bay crew did not find any bass, which is not unusual for this time of year. In fact, finding “zeroes” helps us to define what environmental conditions may predict the return of the fish into the system. The river crew did only slightly better, locating Little Bass #10 at the mouth of the Wading River and Jules Sr. near Lower Bank. The usual contingent of over wintering fish (Little Bass #1, Little Bass #2, Little Bass #4, Little Bass #9, Little Bass #10, and Little Bass #11) were picked up by the Parkway Bridge hydrophone throughout the week, while Jules Sr., Frankie Fish, and Little Bass #5 were all recorded at the Lower Bank Bridge. We continue to have transmission problems with Hydrophone #9 and have brought it back into the lab for further diagnostics, but expect to have it redeployed soon.

Jim Vasslides

We managed to take advantage of today’s good weather to mobile track in the Mullica River and were rewarded by finding the first two bass to return to the system; Jules Sr. and Frankie Fish. Both of these fish were found in the vicinity of Swan Bay, along with two of the overwintering fish, Little Bass #5 and Little Bass #2. The hydrophone array showed Jules Sr. and Frankie Fish venturing upstream past the Lower Bank Bridge, with Little Bass #1, Little Bass #2, Little Bass #4, Little Bass #5, Little Bass #9, Little Bass #10, and Little Bass #11 all around the Parkway Bridge during the weekend. Little Bass #2 even ventured into Main Marsh Thorofare (Hydrophone #13) for a brief spell during the last week. Hydrophone #3 (Shooting Thorofare) was repaired on a quick turnaround last Friday and Hydrophone #9 (Wading River) was redeployed today, so we hope to “catch” even more of the returning fish in the array.

Jim Vasslides

Bad weather has kept us from mobile tracking, but the changes in temperature we have seen over the last two weeks sure have our overwintering bass on the move! Based on the mooring array data, Little Bass #1, Little Bass #2, Little Bass #4, Little Bass #5, Little Bass #9, Little Bass #10, and Little Bass #11 all have been making runs down the Mullica to the vicinity of the Parkway bridge. We also removed hydrophone #9 at the mouth of the Wading River for maintenance this week, and hope to have it back in the water soon. With the warming that we traditionally see throughout the month of March we hope to redeploy the hydrophone array so that we can catch any early returnees to the Jersey Shore.

Jim Vasslides

During today's downloads I couldn't help but to notice the ice on the river and wish for last week's balmy weather. Because of the cold, wind, and ice, mobile tracking isn't feasible, but based on the data from the hydrophone array it would appear that the fish are continuing the same movements patterns as last week, with the smaller fish (Little Bass #1, Little Bass #2, Little Bass #5, Little Bass #9, Little Bass #10, Little Bass #11) closer to Lower Bank than the Parkway Bridge. Hopefully next week we will have sunny skies and gentle winds so we can get back to mobile tracking.

Jim Vasslides

Welcome to the return of the Scientist's Blog on StriperTracker. Posts slowed down last spring due to budget cuts that left us near maintenance level. However, work did not come to a complete standstill. A number of articles based on data collected through the striper tracker program were published, and 17 more fish were tagged and released into the system. These were mostly smaller (20-30 inch) fish. We have been following them throughout the winter to find out how the Mullica River - Great Bay estuary is used as an over-wintering location (see below). We have a busy spring and summer planned, with continued tracking of stripers as they make their way back into the Bay, Jay Turnure ramping up his project tagging and tracking weakfish, and several interns who will be tackling related projects. A number of changes have been made to the hydrophone array this winter due to equipment loss and winter precautions. Hydrophones #1 and #2 in Little Egg Inlet were removed for repair in the early winter. Hydrophone #5, near the Fish Factory, was removed for the winter, refurbished, and redeployed at the mouth of the Wading River. We lost #13, located in Main Marsh Thorofare, in November, so if anyone sees a wayward buoy and hydrophone please call us. We are keeping our fingers crossed that it won't be a bad winter for icing, but as a way of hedging our bets we have filled all of our buoys with insulating foam to keep them afloat in case of ice punctures. For those of you keeping score at home we have hydrophones in Shooting Thorofare (#3), Grassy Channel (#4), Main Marsh Thorofare (#13), Mullica River at Chestnut Neck (#7), Mullica River and Wading River (#9), and Mullica River at Lower Bank (#10). You might notice that most of our effort appears to be "upriver", and you would be correct. During our weekly mobile tracking we have watched the recently tagged smaller fish (Little Bass #1, Little Bass #2, Little Bass #5, Little Bass #9, Little Bass #10, Little Bass #11) move upriver as the weather has gotten colder. They first congregated around the Parkway Bridge/Collins Cove area in December, moved into Swan Bay in January, and have continued upstream around Hog Island this week. We have also watched Little Bass #4 move further up the Wading River as the winter progresses. Until next week……..

Jay Turnure

Winter claimed some of our telemetry equipment. Hydrophone 1 in Little Egg Harbor was intentionally removed for the winter season, but the adjacent hydrophone 2 and the fish factory buoy (#5) were swept away by large ice flows moving down estuary in mid-February. We have yet to recover these hydrophones. The Shooting Thorofare and Grassy Channel moorings (3 and 4, respectively) stayed in place, but the buoys were punctured and torn from entrapment within the ice for long periods of time. Upriver, the Wading River hydrophone was picked up and moved approximately 300 meters downriver of its original mooring location. Most of the system has been fixed, but hydrophones 1, 2, and 5 await parts.

The bass are starting to filter into the array. Our first contact with a striped bass last year was March 30 (Bob G.) This year, we saw the arrival of Ty Man on March 24 at the Parkway Bridge and then at the Lower Bank Bridge shortly thereafter. This was one of the ripe male fish we caught last May below Green Bank. Another male fish caught the same day and in the same area, Saturday Moron, was also seen entering Great Bay through Main Marsh Thorofare in the past week. Saturday Moron was also one of the last to leave the system in late January. Bob G., the first arrival of last year, arrived on March 30 at the Grassy Channel hydrophone, the same time and place as last year. One of the smaller stripers we tagged off Long Beach Island last Fall (Prancer) was the only fish we observed over-wintering within the Mullica. Along with frequent mobile tracking efforts, the data from the array showed movement of Prancer from the Parkway Bridge all the way up to the Lower Bank Bridge throughout the colder months.

Please note on the StriperTracker.org main page that we are in the process of undergoing a two-year long study of weakfish movement and spawning habitat. As a part of the larger project, we will be fitting small and large fish with acoustic transmitters like those we use on striped bass. If you are interested in learning more or adopting a weakfish to help offset transmitter costs, please see the link on the main page for contact information.

Jay Turnure

Local angler Dave Messerschmid took out the RUMFS crew on December 11 of last year to expand upon our past t-bar tagging efforts (where we only place external tags in fish with the hope that another angler will recapture the fish and give us new data on where the fish has traveled). We fished along the beach front of Long Beach Island, t-bar tagging 23 striped bass between 15.5 and 23.5 inches. As shown in the photo, we also caught a bass with some interesting anatomical features. This fish, which was actually a recapture from the American Littoral Society tagging program in Sandy Hook, NJ and had a yellow loop tag inserted in the dorsal region, had a large, rounded notch in the lower stomach region. It seemed no worse for its wear, so we re-tagged it and let it swim away.

To supplement our understanding of small striped bass movement on a finer scale, we also inserted acoustic transmitters into four of the fish that we tagged (appropriately named "Prancer," "Vixen," "Donder," and "Blitzen"). Although this deviates from our normal protocol of tagging fish only within the confines of the Great Bay-Mullica River system, we decided that the benefit of relocating a fish within the array far outweighed the risk of releasing the fish and never contacting them again. Furthermore, not relocating a fish will also be beneficial in telling us something about their habits. After releasing one of the bass ("Prancer"), it was seen at Main Marsh Thorofare (hydrophone 13) and, shortly after, at our upriver hydrophone near the Parkway Bridge (7).

Large fish seem to have moved out of the system completely, as there has not been a contact since the early part of December for these fish. To catch any of the small fish that we have tagged recently, however, we will continue to maintain the array at its full capacity (with the exception of hydrophone 1, which we deemed unnecessary for this part of the project). The Wading River hydrophone (9) was even redeployed this week to gain better spatial coverage of the Mullica. Throughout the rest of the winter, we will be concentrating on tagging more small striped bass in these upriver areas.

Like last year, we are beginning to ramp up our efforts in the Navesink River, NJ to study winter flounder spawning habitat. Take a look at the winter founder web page ( www.marine.rutgers.edu/navesink) to keep up to date on this project, as well.

Jay Turnure

Things have been extremely busy at the field station over the past summer and fall. Mobile tracking and upkeep of the stationary listening array have taken up the bulk of our efforts. During the summer months, we successfully tagged and tracked a number of new species, including hickory shad, weakfish, and smooth dogfish. As part of a new phase of the StriperTracker program that will be our focus for this upcoming winter and spring, we also tagged six smaller striped bass (less than 24 inches). We tagged three more shorts this fall, with hopes of releasing 14 more, to examine over-wintering habits of these smaller fish. The tags for these are smaller than those for adults, so we sacrifice battery life (4-5 months, as opposed to two-years). For better spatial coverage in the Mullica River, we will re-deploy hydrophones 9 (Wading River) and 8 (Collins Cove) as soon as the equipment is available. We are also looking to gain inlet coverage back at the hydrophone 1 and 2 spot, after losing the gear during a strong storm in October.

Some other interesting notes from the past year:

-- Candy Striper, one of the four fish tagged upriver during the spawning run this past May, and Paz, tagged in the early summer, were both recaptured locally within weeks of their release.

-- Another fish tagged in May 2006, Saturday Moron, moved past our Lower Bank Bridge hydrophone shortly after release to a spot above the Parkway Bridge. We always found it there by mobile tracking effort in the summer, even when water temperatures reached near 30°C (88°F), leading us to believe the fish may have perished or dropped its tag. However, in October, it quickly moved downriver and is still being detected now.

-- Of the two inlet hydrophones (#2 and #3) lost this fall, one of the buoys was found a week later high up on the marsh bank near the field station. The other lost buoy was reported last week by a commercial fisherman who found it washed up on a beach near Oregon Inlet, North Carolina.

-- Another exchange between a University of New England (UNE) bass in Maine and the Rutgers array occurred in mid-November. Fish code #70 was tagged and released in the Saco River back in August.

Jay Turnure

With the help of local sharpies Dave Messerschmid and Chester Husta, our striper tagging effort began this week. With adopters waiting for their fish to be tagged and released, our goal was to tag four fish over the week. We concentrated on the Mullica as far up as Green Bank. While plenty of our tagged fish have traveled there in the past, this was our first effort to collect from that region. This was done to address the possibility that previous sampling in the lower estuary has biased our view of how many fish will use the upriver portion at some time or how many will remain over summer. On May 1, our team tagged two male stripers ("Ty Man" and "Saturday Moron"), both ripe and running. The amount of milt streaming from these fish made it difficult to see the incision. The next day, we tagged one more ripe fish ("Candy Striper"), another fat ripe male, near the beginning of our trip but lost all other takers. Finally, on May 3, we met our weekly goal by implanting a transmitter into "Peace," adopted by Eisenhower Intermediate School, and. While this fish was internally identified to be male, it was not running milt like the others. Thanks to Chuck Many, Bayshore Saltwater Flyrodders, Bill Gross, and Eisenhower School for these transmitters. Two adopters await the arrival of new transmitters.

Meanwhile, the array needs maintenance. We deployed refurbished hydrophones 1 and 5 to regain coverage in the lower estuary, and plan to deploy Hydrophone 2 near and the Wading River hydrophone (9) as soon as we can get batteries, which had to await funds. Someone unplugged the Sweetwater Casino hydrophone right after deployment (11) completely draining the backup battery, so it is off line for a few days. Too bad, as we have tagged four fish upriver this week.

While Mamie continues to make treks upriver and down, one more bass has entered the listening area. Dwight, another adoptee of the Eishenhower Intermediate School, showed up on hydrophone 5 on April 29 and then moved quickly to Main Marsh Thorofare (13).

Jay Turnure

On March 30, 2006, we received the first contact from the first bass to return this season, Bob G (adopted by BBL Sciences, Inc. on October 19 2005). There was a short piece that aired on NJN television about the ongoing progress of the StriperTracker project last fall and this fish was one of the two shown during surgery in the segment. You can watch a streaming version of the piece by clicking on the link from the main page.

Soon after the arrival of our first fish, Mamie and RFA Toni, both tagged last year (fall and spring, respectively) came into range of the hydrophones. Mamie, adopted by Eisenhower School, first showed up near Main Marsh Thorofare (Hydrophone 13), suggesting that it entered via another inlet further south of here. RFA Toni was first heard at the Grassy Channel hydrophone (4). All three of these fish moved upriver as far as the Parkway Bridge and Bob G. moved all the way to Lower Bank five days after entering.

In the past week, two more fish entered the system. Special K, tagged last spring, and Barney 2, tagged last fall, have both been contacted at Main Marsh Thorofare, while Barney 2 passed by Hydrophone 3 on its way in.

While we scaled back our hydrophone use over the winter to 5 hydrophones covering the main pinch points of the estuary, we are now in the process of redeploying all the lower (1, 2, 5) and upper (9) hydrophones. Due to the sudden influx of bass moving upriver and anecdotal reports of spawning behavior occurring in the Mullica, we reinstalled the Sweetwater Casino hydrophone (11), to catch any fish moving that far up the river. By next week, the listening array should be back in order. It is time for our bass tagging efforts for this year to begin in earnest as well, with a number of adopters waiting for their fish.

Jay Turnure

There is little to report of striped bass tracking. Three contacts last month at the Parkway Bridge hydrophone from one of the fish we tagged earlier this fall, Eagle, remain un-repeated. Anglers south of here, especially in the Carolinas, are reporting nice catches of stripers. Locally, Scotty's Bait and Tackle reports the first official legal size bass caught from Graveling Point, a place where we have tagged inside the array near the mouth of the Mullica River.

While we wait for previously tagged bass to return to the Great Bay estuary, we are tagging winter flounder on the Navesink River, just south of Sandy Hook Bay, to study their spawning habitat. To learn more about that project, visit http://www.marine.rutgers.edu/navesink/

Jay Turnure

In early December we made one effort to haul seine bass to tag. This time, we tried closer to Little Egg Inlet hoping that the bass would be in the relatively warmer ocean water. We had also heard several fishing reports that there were still stripers being caught in the area. Like our attempt in the fall, our efforts were futile. In late December, we trawedl some of the historical striper over-wintering areas. We looked for deep holes and channel edges where winter bass like to congregate due to more stable temperatures. Going over the area with a depth finder and sonar, we often will see "marks" on the screen that correspond to groupings of fish. Again, we were unsuccessful in our first try, but we will continue to use this method, as we believe it is our best shot at finding a concentration of smaller fish to tag.

Our last contact with a Rutgers tagged fish occurred in early December when "Net Free" was detected on our inlet hydrophones. Just as our listening array was getting quiet, however, a fish tagged by the researchers at the University of Maine was detected. It was first detected on 12/30/05 at hydrophone # 4, but moved to #13 and remained there until later in the same day. We lost contacts after this point.

As the water temperatures continue to drop and occasional freezing events occur, we run the risk of damaging our hydrophone mooring. Therefore, we recently pulled hydrophone #s 1, 2, 5, and 9. This leaves us with enough coverage in the inlet and river to catch any fish that is still in the array or will enter the array. In the meantime, we can do much needed maintenance on all the equipment and moorings to get them ready for the spring run.

Jay Turnure

While field work slow down as winter approaches, there are some recent developments. Two tagged fish, Phenix and Hazelnut, were harvested in the last month within three days of each other. Phenix was caught behind Brigantine on November 8 by Bill Hart of Medford, NJ. The fish took a drifted live eel and was reported as a healthy 27 inches. To put his recapture in perspective, Phenix was originally tagged in June. After making several runs upriver, it remained very close to its capture spot right outside the RUMFS boat basin, where it stayed for most of the summer and fall. Our last transmission from Phenix was late in October just inside Little Egg Inlet. Hazelnut was caught by William Topham of Chatsworth, NJ inside Little Egg Inlet on November 5. Hazelnut was a homebody in our array until mid-June of this year. Presumably, this fish was caught during its southerly migration after spending some time in the north for the summer.

On November 8, the RUMFS tagging team of Deuce Greaney and Ryan Nichols caught three new fish, bringing us that much closer to our fall season goal. Deuce was the lucky angler who hooked into Fat Joe, a healthy and robust 35-incher, another bass adopted by the Lacey Township school system. The other two fish, Barney and Barney #2, were collectively adopted by Lacey Marine, Barnegat Fishin' Hole, and SeaTow Central NJ. Another bass, JCAA, was tagged on November 18 by Dave Messerchmid for the Jersey Coast Anglers Association. Thanks again to those who have given us the resources to continue this project.

As far as current visitors to the array, few remain. However, throughout the month, some transient fish have passed through, including Henry Hudson and Stripey, while others like Hi-Mar, Special K, and Big Mike, have remained within the system. Recently tagged bass, Barney, Barney #2, Dwight, and Bob G. have all been making their presence known since their release. C-Lover returned for a brief visit to hydrophone #1 and then to Grassy Channel for a short while longer. Before the short-term storm event we experienced last week end, we were unable to find any fish in the system after searching from the upper Mullica to the lower reaches of the bay in our mobile tracking efforts. Some fish have returned, but in fewer numbers.

We intend to leave our wireless array within the system over winter. Although risky to the equipment, it could yield surprises. A thorough maintenance of every hydrophone mooring system has just been conducted, so we are now ready for whatever Mother Nature will bring us.

As a side note, we forgot to mention in a previous log about our attempt earlier this fall to haul seine in the Mullica. We hoped it would be a way to tag numerous fish from one location at one time, which is helpful when analyzing movement patterns statistically, and might help capture more "river" bass. At 500 feet long, the idea is to take the net out as far as it reaches by boat and slowly encapsulate the area. Once the boat comes back to shore, a team on each end pulls the net in, trapping whatever was in its path. It was not an easy job even for our crew of eight, especially with the many bottom snags that the Mullica had to offer and, unfortunately, everything did not go as planned. By the end of the day, most of us had not caught more than a cold, but it was an interesting and worthwhile experience nonetheless. We hope to give it another go in the springtime. The photographs you see are from that day.

Jay Turnure

The bass are on the move! In the past two weeks we have had a significant increase in the movement of tagged bass within the array, as well as an influx of new bass. "Big Mike", one of two bass that we tagged and released upriver this summer, remained localized near his release site for the past few months. Now, Big Mike has moved into the bay near the #13 hydrophone. Another bass, "Ancient Mariner", seen frequently upriver this summer, has shown up around Main Marsh Thorofare and the Fish Factory. "Henry Hudson," a bass whose last contacts were on November 13 of last year, is back and "Net Free" is roaming around hydrophone 5 once again. We expect these new arrivals to keep coming in as the season progresses.

The tagging effort has been taking up much of our time these last few weeks. Since we last tagged "Ikey" on September 22, we have tagged five new bass: Eagle, Mamie, Dwight, Bob G., and Volcom. With the continued help of local sharpie Dave Messerschmid, we've been able to keep up with this fall's new adoptions.

For those who adopted, check out the latest fish movements, as we have been getting great data on most of the newly tagged fish. It seems that these fish have all made a push upriver to hydrophone 7 and 9 shortly after release, with a few dropping back down into the bay afterwards.

Ryan Nichols, Mike Holon, and myself made a concerted effort this week to tag and release bass within the Mullica to get a better understanding of where these "river" fish will go for the winter. However, we were thwarted in our attempts due to bad weather and a slow bite. Fortunately, the season is not yet over, so we will report next week on how we fare when we try again. Until then…

Jay Turnure

In the past two months, the big story has been the periodic and frequent movements of tagged striped bass from their summer locales in the Little Egg Inlet area to the upper-estuary sites in the Mullica River. At one point, our mobile tracking efforts saw the majority of the fish we had been tracking move up the river within a one-week time span. In fact, both Hi-Mar and Special K, bass that had been seen in close proximity to one another near the inlet, were found hanging nearby further upriver. While we can hypothesize the reasons behind these movements, part of the objective of this long-term study is to answer questions like these on why striped bass use habitat the way they do.

As we mentioned last time, one of our spring-time bass (Woody) was caught and harvested back in June. To replace this fish, we captured and tagged a new bass on August 26, named Cherokee by Don Detwieler, the angler who recaptured Woody. Another new bass, Ikey, was tagged on September 22, the first of several fish that we hope to tag this fall. The Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve (JCNERR) is working with local schools to sponsor the tagging of additional bass to get future young scientists vested and excited about the work. Thanks to the Eisenhower Intermediate School for getting the project started with their first bass, of four, Ikey.

To the north, bass we have tagged are showing up on fishermen's lines. Near the beginning of August, Hopeless Fatty, tagged in early Spring 2004, was caught near the southern portion of the Monomoy Islands in Massachussetts. The angler, Sean Caswell of West Chatham, MA, reported that the fish was 31 inches (two inches larger than when it was caught) and "very fat". The external tag was missing and the incision was not visible, being completely healed. Mr. Noodles was caught on September 18 by Rob Costello out of southern Long Island. The bass measured 36.5 inches, a growth of nearly two inches. Kudos to these two dedicated anglers for reporting their catch to us.

In order to get the hydrophone infrastructure ready for the next few months of data collection, we have made sure that all systems are "go". Communication with the Wading River hydrophone (#9) was fixed by increasing the radio gain. After a spate of hydrophone mooring failures, all the trouble spots have been located and critical hardware replaced.

As the water chills and the days become shorter, we are moving into the prime of the striped bass migratory season. As in the last two full years, we expect to see more and more fish move into the estuary everyday. As they do, look for us to increase our tagging effort and also keep an eye this on website for previously tagged bass that re-enter the Great Bay/Mullica River system.

Jay Turnure

Hydrophone 9 (located at the mouth of the Wading River) was briefly deployed, but pulled shortly after battery leaked into the radio compartment. This hydrophone was replaced and the old one sent for repair. Hydrophone 13, (Main Marsh Thorofare) in Great Bay, tore from its mooring due to corrosion in the hardware that held it to its anchor chain. We caught the drifting buoy before it had a chance to get too far. It was back in on August 5, about two weeks after it first went adrift. All nine wireless hydrophone are working. On the fish front, Woody met the same fate as Barner 3 when Don Detwiler harvested it on June 18. Don kindly reported the catch and returned the tag, so look for a new bass named"Cherokee" soon. We can't stress enough how important it is for anglers to keep us informed of a capture of one these tagged bass. Every data point we gain from an animal helps us in determining their habits and movements, regardless of whether they are removed from the system all together or allowed to swim free again.

In an attempt to replace some of the recently captured bass and to get a better idea on the movements of the bass who have remained in the system over summer, we made a short, but productive, effort to tag more bass. With the help of our veteran striped bass guru Dave Messerschmid, we managed to tag four new bass between June 29 and July 1. One of these bass, Big Mike, was caught, tagged, and released in the Mullica River, where he has remained since, out of the reach of the Parkway hydrophone, but within the range of our mobile tracking efforts. Keep an eye out for Mike once the water starts to cool, as we will see where he decides to head for the winter months. The three other newly tagged fish this summer, Phenix, Ed, and C-Lover, were all released in close proximity to Little Egg Inlet and have been relocated subsequently after release. Although Phenix made a quick run up to Parkway after his tagging, both this fish and C-Lover have become permanent fixtures in the inlet area, along with sporadic appearances by Roaming Roman. Recently, however, more fish are coming within the range of our stationary hydrophones. After a long absence following its initial tagging on June 21, Bachelor II has come within the reach of hydrophone 1. In addition, Desilu and Bass Buster have shown up in recent downloads. Due to the limited listening radius of our stationary array, some fish like Special K and Hi-Mar, have only been picked up by mobile tracking efforts in areas north of Little Egg Inlet. Earlier in the summer, mobile hydrophones were able to locate Agent Jeitner nearby Blood Ditch in the Mullica, near his recapture and release last fall.

With the fall season fast approaching, you can be sure that there will be a continued push to tag more bass, as there are still many transmitters to still be deployed, and a substantial increase in the previously tagged fish coming within the range of our hydrophones. Furthermore, we are looking to catch and tag more large bluefish during the autumn run, so keep an eye out here for how progress is being made in this area. We apologize for the lack updates posted this summer, but look for more frequent postings in the coming months. Thanks for all your support and interest!

Jay Turnure

There has been a lot of activity in the last couple weeks in addition to our everyday maintenance and monitoring of the array. To begin, we continue to see a decline in the numbers of tagged bass in the system, although the ones we are seeing seem to making themselves quite comfortable in the bay and river system. Some of these stationary residents are newly tagged Woody, Roaming Roman, RFA Stacey, Hazelnut, and Ancient Mariner. Barner 3, who showed back up in the array around the last week of May, was harvested on 6/20/05, very close to the area where he was showing up on the hydrophone. After losing this one fish, we quickly replaced it by tagging a new bass on 6/21/05, whom we named Bachelor II. If you remember from a previous update, the Bachelor I was caught and harvested in Maine on May 30, 2005, but the RFA has graciously decided to replace this fish by funding a new tag in honor of the original Bachelor. Keep a lookout for future updates on the whereabouts of this bass.

Another popular striper also recently showed up in a fisherman's net this past week. Freshwater Marty, first tagged in October 2003, has been absent from the array for a long time, but was caught just outside the range of our hydrophones in Little Egg Inlet, where he was released to transmit another day. Interestingly, the location that it was caught was very similar to the location of its original capture.

AAs mentioned in the last journal entry, we have removed the SRX from the Sweetwater site in the Mullica River due to the lack of activity that is found there this time of year. However, a new buoy (#9) has been deployed at the mouth of the Wading River, where we will hopefully pick up transmissions for any fish who decide to make their way upriver. Mobile tracking efforts, however, in conjunction with the data obtained from the stationary hydrophones, have been successful in finding the whereabouts of Ancient Mariner, who seems to be the only fish who has remained in the upper study area at the mouth of the Mullica.

Those are the big updates for the past two weeks. See you again soon…

Jay Turnure

There are currently eleven bass in the system, with two bass, Corson's and Desilu, returning since their last appearance in late April. Ancient Mariner continues to hold tight to his spot on the Mullica, (which we know from the unposted mobile hydrophone contacts) where he has been present the last few weeks and the newest fish in the system, Woody, has also continued to hang around. With no activity at the Sweetwater hydrophone, we freed it for mobile tracking projects on bluefish, stripers, and horseshoe crabs. So, until the redeployment of the Sweetwater buoy, Lower Bank Bridge will be the farthest upstream that the stationary hydrophones will extend. In other general array maintenance news, hydrophone 2 began sending us "low battery" warning calls towards the end of May, but the problem has been remediated and the whole system is back in working order. We are also looking to redeploy hydrophone 9 back to its spot above the Parkway Bridge, at the mouth of the Wading River. Now that all the new parts have come in, look for this to be happening very soon. Although the activity in the array is slowing down for the summer months, here at the station there will be none of that. Many new and exciting projects involving mobile tracking and preliminary tagging of new species will be keeping us on our toes for a while. Stay tuned…

Jay Turnure

With bass continuing on their northward migration, we see an overall decline in the number of tagged bass in the observatory, although some fish continue to enter. This week, Ancient Mariner returned to his spot near Hydrophone 7 at the Parkway Bridge, as well as Hopeless Fatty, who returned after a three-week vacation from the array. As tags from previously tracked fish begin to expire, we can finally start to re-use the codes in newly tagged fish. On Friday, local sharpie Dave Messerschmid delivered a new bass for tagging just as we were going home. This new bass, Woody, was seen in its most recent transmissions around Hydrophone 5. In addition to this exciting news, we were reminded yesterday of just how far-reaching this project is. Angler Rob Dee of Portland area, Maine, called to inform us that he had caught one of our fish, Bachelor, at Cape Elizabeth State Park in Maine. Bachelor, the first of three fish adopted by the RFA so far, was first tagged on May 2, 2003 in Great Bay and was 23 inches in length. Bachelor appeared previously in Maine in 2004 and again in NJ in spring 2005. That means that he made another run north, because he was here 1.5 months ago. He was "all head, skinny body", probably from swimming so much, and "fought very hard." The fish had grown three inches. The good news is that his tag should be just about expired, so the catch is a bonus data point that we would not have gotten otherwise. Bachelor's external tag was missing.

Again, we thank those who participate in every way, whether it be adopting fish or calling in tagged fish that have been caught.

Jay Turnure

As the water temperatures continue to rise, so do the numbers tagged striped bass in the array. Some of the fish tagged earlier this season are staying her. We have contacts throughout the lower estuary hydrophones from Stacey RFA, Capt. Mike's Marina, and Net Free, all tagged in late April and early May. As well as these new fish, Hazelnut, Paradise Mike, and Barner 4 continue to roam Great Bay. Nicky, caught in the summer 2003 and very active previously in the array, made an encore appearance, as did Roaming Roman, one of the larger bass caught last Fall season. Barners 3, 7, and 8 all made reappearances, with Barner 8 moving all the way to the Parkway Bridge. The bass we have been tracking from Maine, Jake, is still within our listening area. It will be interesting to note whether it will leave the system in the next few weeks and reappear up the coast and into Maine. Stay tuned…

Three out of the four blues tagged this Spring (not shown on the Stripertracker web page) are still within the estuary. Another tagged bluefish was caught by an angler within 4 days, but we were able to reuse the tag for the remainder of its lifespan (Kudos to David Burk). With the abundance of bluefish in Great Bay at this time, it wasn't hard to find another specimen to tag.

Mike Holon

The array is now loaded with fish. In addition to the striped bass we recently tagged several bluefish for a preliminary study. Striped bass from Maine are also here along with several American shad and a hickory shad that were tagged in Virginia by John Olney and Brian Watkins. So far the spring has been exciting with bass returning and new bass and blues being tagged. With older tags expiring within the next few weeks we will be able to redeploy the codes and tag new bass well into the summer.

New bass tagged over the past few weeks include Captain Mikes Marina, Net Free and Special K.

Mike Holon

Tagged bass are returning to the array daily. Fifteen bass are now being tracked. Four are recent additions: RFA Stacey, RFA Tony, Tom Gilmore, and Bigmouth (special thanks to Charlie Price of West Creek). Returning fish include Corson, Stripey, Glo, Bachelor, Desileu, Hazelnut, 3D, Jacque Percey and two bass that were tagged in Maine, Jake and Gill. Jake, Stacy, Toni, Bachelor, and Big Mouth have made their way up to the Parkway Bridge, Tom Gilmore and Desileu have continued up to Lower Bank and Corson has made it all the way to Sweetwater on April 8.

We finally received our long awaited float for Hydrophone 9 nine and it should be redeployed soon. We also had an issue with power to the Sweetwater receiver right when Corson first visited there, so he may have been up there longer. That system will soon be redeployed.

Mike Holon

The bass are back!! We diagnosed a problem with the Hydrophone 4 (Grassy Channel) hydrophone transmitter, just in time. Hydrophone 7 (Chestnut Neck) is still out of the water waiting for a back ordered buoy after the first one was crushed by ice. Corson and 3D returned on March 31 and April 1 through Main Marsh Thorofare. Corson ran straight up river and was recorded at Lower Bank over the weekend and 3D traveled from Main Marsh to Grassy Channel on the weekend. With warmer weather arriving and the sun warming up the water, more fish should begin to return and make their way up river.

Local anglers have indicated that smaller bass are being caught on a regular basis and herring have begun their first upriver run of the season providing forage for returning bass.

Mike Holon

Shortly after our last update on December 15, 2004, Hi-Mar, Eely Dan, and Jake (here from Maine) left the study area presumably heading south. The ice flows of January and February did a number on the array, all buoys had to be pulled in mid February and after refurbishment buoys 1, 2, 3, and 4 have been redeployed. Buoys 5, 7, 8, and 13 will be deployed as soon as our shipment of new floats arrive. As of March 1 no returning tagged fish were detected where hydrophones remain in the inlet.

NJ Striper, a fish adopted by NJ Striper.com, was caught in Croatan Sound, NC and on February 21, 2005. NJ Striper had grown 1.5" since June to a length of 33" and a weight of 9 lbs.

Mike "Deuce" Greaney

The colder it gets, the less fish there are in the system. Hi-Mar still remains in the inlet near Buoy #1. Eely Dan's returned from a trip up the Mullica River last week and was last detected at Buoy #3, perhaps on the way out. The most exciting news is that another fish tagged in Maine appeared in our hydrophone array. Jake (tagged in the Saco River in Maine) appeared in the inlet at Buoy #1. Perhaps Jake was just stopping by on a longer migration. I wish there was more to say, but the fish are leaving.

Mike "Deuce" Greaney

The most exciting news to report this week, is that Hi-Mar returned to the inlet. Hi-Mar was detected at Buoy 1 along with Corson. Agent Jeitner and Hazlenut are still hanging out in Little Bay by Buoy 13. Stripey also appeared again in Grassy Channel at Buoy 4. That bodes well for Buoy 4 - if you have read previous log entries you would remember that we were having troubles with reception at Buoy 4. I appears now that it is working, at least well enough to pick up fish codes. It looks very much like Briggs (a fish tagged in 2002 that we have not seen for quite some time) appeared at Buoy #13 though only briefly. This pattern matches past visits, one of which was confirmed when Briggs was actually caught and re-released on the inlet bar in 2003 at just the same time as the few detections made on Buoy 2. On the whole, detections are becoming fewer and further apart; the fish appear to be leaving.

Mike "Deuce" Greaney

Things are calming down a bit. Agent Jeitner still remains in Little Bay near Buoy 13. Hazelnut is also poking around Little Bay with several hits. Alfred, Biggest Jack, and Ancient Mariner have again returned to the inlet. However, the Mullica River was not being used by tagged fish in the last week.

We are experiencing technical difficulties with Buoy 4 (Grassy Channel) and Buoy 9 (junction of the Wading and Mullica rivers). Tests with reference tags show that they are transmitting, but weakly; the transmitting antennae leads may be worn. We are troubleshooting them now and hope to re-deploy Buoy 4 on Wednesday November 17. Because fish have left the river and the ice is coming soon, we will leave Buoy 9 out of the water and keep Buoy 7 on watch for the time being.

Mike "Deuce" Greaney

As of this week's downloads, several fish from last week are still in the array. Paradise Mike, Stripey, Corson's, Nicky, and Agent Jeitner all remain where they were last week. Hazlenut is spending time near the Fish Factory. Ancient Mariner is in the inlet. Goldie (the striper from Maine) is still here, now in Grassy Channel. Shorty, who poked his head in through Little Bay at the beginning of last month perhaps hung around in the bay away from our buoys and has now ended up in Grassy Channel.

Domestic Ed has been by far the most active of the stripers within the array. On Nov.1 and 2, Domestic Ed was up in the Mullica River by buoys 7 and 9. On Nov. 5 he appeared down in the inlet, but returned to the Mullica on the 6th and 7th and once again appeared in the inlet on Nov. 8th. He is not passing buoy 13 or 5 on these trips and may be using the middle of the bay.

Many of the fish that were tagged in spring of the this year have not been seen until now. After a summer's absence, Barner 3, Eely Dan and 3D have returned to the inlet. That brings the total number of stripers tagged that have returned within the past two months to about 30! Awesome.

Keep in touch for more exciting news!

Mike "Deuce" Greaney

Hello again! The action of tagged fish in the array has quieted down considerably since last week. Vertigo, Paradise Mike, Freshwater Marty, Corson's, and Percy Jacque are still in the inlet. Alfred appeared in Grassy Channel along with Stripey. Agent Jeitner is still poking his head in and out of Little Bay while Domestic Ed took a trip up to the Mullica River above the parkway bridge. Nicky, who we have not seen for awhile, came the whole way down from Lower Bank and is presently in Grassy Channel.

Louie (who appeared to be a resident fish) was caught yesterday and eaten. Brian Christopher made the catch at the mouth of the Mullica, but Louie was gut hooked and Brian's best efforts to revive him for release failed so re-netted the floater and turned in the transmitter. Thanks to Brain for the effort and also for reporting the catch. Louie had grown 2 Inches since being tagged in May 2004.

In exciting news, another striper tagged in Maine visited the StriperTracker array. Goldie, a 25 ¼ inch fish was tagged in the Saco River on August 30, 2004; was last seen in there on September 5 and just showed up in the inlet on Halloween! Trick or treat! Wow! Like Bob before him, Goldie made the trip in just under 2 months. You can see the Maine movement records and pictures of Goldie and Bob at www.sportfishtracker.org, a collaborating site at the University of New England.

Of the 25 striped bass tagged in spring of 2004, Eely Dan, and Barner 5 have not been seen since their tagging days. However, the rest hung around awhile before leaving the system and as of the last few weeks, Hazlenut, Stripey, Barner 6, Space Guppy, Henry Hudson and Corson returned to the array. Downloaded data from the buoys has been put on a more reliable schedule, look for regular Tuesday updates of both the data and the Science Log.

Well, that's all I have for this week. Stay tuned for more exciting bass movement next week!

Mike "Deuce" Greaney

Apologies for the silence of the logs. We have been busy, not slacking. Most of the recent work involved maintaining and tuning the array, testing its applicability to other species such as bluefish and crabs, and beginning the data analysis. On 18 March 2004, Ken Able provided testimony for the reauthorization of the Striped Bass Conservation Act before the U.S. House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Fisheries Conservation, Wildlife and Oceans. This legislation provides some of the funding for our work on tracking of striped bass including the stripertracker.org web page.

While many stripers left the system, a few stayed in the Mullica River, and many returned recently. Blues Clues, a fish tagged in 2002, once again returned to the Great Bay/Mullica River estuary. Blues Clues moved up river to Swan Bay in June and mobile trackers Clare Ng and Dana Rowles heard the last weak pings of the tag before the batteries died. Perhaps Blues Clues is still in the system, but unfortunately we will not know unless it is caught and the ribbon tag is still readable. Another fish from 2002, El Payaso was caught this summer off the coast of New Hampshire but the tag was not seen until El Payaso fell to the filet knife. According to the data recorded, El Payaso grew from 26" to 30" and gained 4 lbs.! Briggs, also from 2002 was seen in the system as reported in an earlier log.

Of the 38 tagged stripers tagged in 2003, (minus Martha, Ish, and Sparky who had been previously reported as harvested), 18 have visited or stayed this summer. Twelve returned at the beginning of fall after a summer away and most are still here. Boom-Boom got close but was caught off Brandt Beach on October 22 by Kevin Schuler. Boom-Boom was a 35.5" when he was recaught. El Guapo was harvested off of Sandy Hook on June 5. The popular Mr. Noodles was detected at the beginning of the summer but has since vanished. Agent Jeitner, a resident bass who seems to spend most of his time up river was caught on October 3 at the cuts and released. After the catch, Agent Jeitner moved down into Little Bay where he has been for the last week. Shorty and Louie also appear to be resident bass but are not often seen on the array because they spend their time in the Wading River where they are detected by mobile tracking. Nicky has bounced back and forth from inlet to the Parkway bridge and was in Grassy Channel last week. Vertigo and Bucktail Willy have been permanent fixtures in the inlet since the beginning of fall with others coming in, hanging out, leaving and coming in again. Bachelor has not been seen in the array since May of last year but that is because he showed up in a similar array run by Jaqcue Carter of the University of New England in the Sacco River, Maine, in August! It will be interesting to see if Bachelor (or any of the 24 fish tagged in Maine this year) makes it here. It's gotta be the name!

Of the 25 striped bass tagged in spring of 2004, Eely Dan, and Barner 5 have not been seen since their tagging days. However, the rest hung around awhile before leaving the system and as of the last few weeks, Hazlenut, Stripey, Barner 6, Space Guppy, Henry Hudson and Corson returned to the array. Downloaded data from the buoys has been put on a more reliable schedule, look for regular Tuesday updates of both the data and the Science Log.

With all of the bass tournaments commencing, keep us in mind. Transmitters last 2 years if given the chance, so there is lots of data to be collected if you let a Rutgers-tagged fish go. Release or keep, please notify us that the fish was caught along with any length and weight data you could provide. Thank you for the continued support for this tagging program and please continue to log on to stripertracker.org to receive new information about our and your fish!

Thomas M. Grothues

We tagged several new fish and saw activity from both newly tagged and 2003-tagged fish in the bay. Also, Briggs, tagged in 2002, returned. Sparky, the first fish to return this year, had been sitting at Lower Bank since late March but moved into Little Egg Inlet on May 5, where he was caught and eaten 5 days later. Lucky angler A. Waldek of Ramsey, NJ, reported that the fish was in great shape at the time, with no visible scars and also no visible external tag; he found the internal transmitter while cleaning the fish and reported it to us. This fish gained ½ inch during its 11 months away. Thanks to A Waldek for reporting the catch. Catch rate is valuable information in determining striped bass population structure for the Great Bay/Mullica River.

Ryan Nichols

More stripers continue to enter the array weekly. Since the last log entry, five bass have returned. Aluetta, Glo, Caped Wonder, Lightning and Agent Jeitner may have followed the herring runs. Shorty and Sparky are still making use of the Mullica River and five new bass were tagged last week. Hazelnut, Eely Dan, Morrie, 3D and Jacque Percy were tagged the evening of April 22 along with 13 shorter fish that were released with white spaghetti tags. Check the adopted fish profiles to see pictures and their location in the array.

Concerning other species in the Great Bay, the first bluefish, weakfish and black drum were caught last week by anglers. This is an exciting time in the Great Bay and Mullica watershed as migrant species make there way north. We will be incorporating a few bluefish into the array later this spring/summer to test the feasibility of tracking them, so be on the lookout for them.

We wish to thank several local anglers for the continued donations of fish, time, and experience; it matters

Ryan Nichols

Unlike the warmer water and weather, the stripers have returned!! Water temperature from our datalogger at buoy 139 reads 6.6°C (43.8°F). Despite the low temperature, Sparky and Shorty returned on the weekend of March 29th; both fish entered through the Main Marsh Thorofare (buoy 13) although Sparky gave us only a few scattered contacts there before going up the Mullica River to Lower Bank . April 1st saw the return of George Bush through the Little Egg Harbor Inlet. One of the interesting notes about the migration of these fish is the consistency with their date of tagging last year. Both Shorty and George Bush were caught and tagged on April 2, 2003 from the bank of Pebble Beach, and their return this year is almost to the day!

Elsewhere in the array, all is quiet but running. We are operational after some minor winter repairs, but Buoy 6 will not be returned to the water because it has proven to be redundant with Buoy 7. Thanks to the Sweetwater Casino for helping us extend the array into fresh water to observe possible spawning runs. We have also returned to the banks to tag, any angler who would like to donate a bass, be on the lookout!! We have also begun to T-Bar tag stripers too small to receive the larger internal acoustic tag. These bass will be identifiable by the white external tag anchored between the first and second dorsal fin. If you are unfortunate enough to catch one of these shorts, instead of a larger bass, please contact stripertracker with the three-digit code found on the tag and release the fish.

Ryan Nichols

With the ice flow finally over (so we hope) much needed repairs on the hydrophone assemblies has begun. We have been refitting floats punctured by squeezing ice, mooring brackets twisted by spinning ice, antennae wires snapped by stretching ice, exchanging batteries, scrubbing barnacles, readying boats. Upriver hydrophone (6-10) came out when the ice got thick in January, but we risked hydrophones No. 3 (Shooting Thorofare), No. 4 (Grassy Channel) and No. 13 (Main Marsh Thorofare) to gate the Great Bay entrance. Last Friday we broke the anchor chain for No. 3 while trying to recover it for servicing. It will go back in with a new anchor this week. The Lower Bank (No. 10) hydrophone will also be back online within the week, in case any of the tagged fish (all were seen to leave the Great Bay) snuck back in through our inlet gate and headed upriver. The remaining hydrophones will be deployed as soon as new antenna cables are fitted to the assembly's. The tagging begins again as soon as the fish show up, and we have lots of adoptions lined up! We would like to thank all the people showing interest in the project; we appreciate the support and donation of tags. Less than a week remains before March madness and the local tackle shops are counting it down; we also are ready and waiting. Keep an eye on Striper Tracker to see which striper returns first.

Thomas M. Grothues

A fish named "Bob" tagged in Maine showed up in Little Egg Inlet this week. Back in October I visited Dr. Jacque Carter and Tim Arienti at the University of New England in Maine as they set up a similar hydrophone array to track striped bass in the Saco River. They tagged four fish before the weather turned on them. "Bob" was tagged on October 10 and stayed in the Saco River until October 15; he showed up here less than two months later. "Bob" was 26.5" long when caught by Maine angler Bob Panetta. We'll be looking to see if our fish show up in their array in summer. Their website is www.une.edu/cas/msc/bass.

Thomas M. Grothues

Local sharpie George Delaport of Little Egg Harbor recaptured Briggs almost 1 year after Briggs was originally tagged. At 34 inches now, Briggs grew 5 œ inches in the last year. George released Briggs in good condition and said that the surgical scar was completely healed and the external tag was moss covered. Briggs has been recorded coming in and out of the inlet a few times in recent weeks, we'll see how long he stays around. Several of the fish recently caught and tagged in the inlet have moved up the river as far as the Parkway Bridge, but none have gone as far as Lower Bank. Check out the records for Murray, Domestic Ed, Freshwater Marty, Jacque, and Paradise Mike.

So what have we been doing? Still fishing (Ryan Nichols and Dave Messerschmid recently caught and tagged "Ol' Barney" courtesy of the Long Island Beach Surf Fishing Tournament organization. Clare has continued mobile tracking from a small whaler in the cold wind to get fine scale movement data. Ryan and crew are maintaining buoys and batteries. I have fixed several storm-damaged antennae. We mysteriously lost Buoy 6 this week, but found it floating further down the bay, its ground tackle cut and gone. If you see fish get to buoy 7 without first getting to 6, that's why. Most of my time has been spent writing code in MATLAB to analyze and plot the more than 300,000 data points. The MATLAB toolbox will be available as freeware to other researchers using Lotek hydrophone systems.

Thomas M. Grothues

We have had a few more returns from spring-tagged fish! Caped Wonder visited the inlet briefly, as did Shorty. Summer-tagged Agent Jeitner also returned. Also, Ish, largest of the spring-tagged fish showed up two separate days in the inlet, and then moved into Barnegat Bay where he was caught by Don Sherman of Bayville, NJ. Like some other recaptures, the external tag was overgrown with algae and couldn't be read until too late; Don wants us to know that he would have gladly released the fish. We thank Don for reporting it and returning the transmitter - this information is useful to us. Ditto for Jeff Santarpio, who harvested Anna Banana in Absecon Inlet last month. The external tag had been clipped off but he found the transmitter when cleaning the fish. Anna Banana was also tagged in Spring but apparently didn't move far. It is nice to know from looking at these recaptures that the tagged fish are healthy nearly a year later.

Clare Ng

Mr. Noodles is sitting comfortably at the mouth of Rutgers Marine Field Station's boat basin in 43 feet of water. Nicky has moved from the flats behind Fish Factory to an area south of Oysterbed Point (southwest of Graveling Point) in 10 feet of water. Nicky seems to like it here, and kept swimming in a one-square mile area for four hours. Blues Clues took a trip from Oysterbed Point southwards towards Brigantine Inlet. Blues Clues moved over 2 miles in 20 minutes. The movements and activity of individual striped bass has definitely picked up compared to the summer-- in the summer, they preferred to sit in one spot for hours at a time during the day and limit their movements to the night. Now, they can't seem to sit still!

Clare Ng

When Dana and I were mobile tracking today, we found Sparky sitting in Little Egg Inlet; Nicky has moved from Grassy Channel (last week) to the flats behind Fish Factory; Agent Jeitner is still sitting in Blood Ditch; and Blues Clues has moved from north of Swan Bay (last week) to the first bend in the Mullica River.

Clare Ng

With the coming of Hurricane Isabel we pulled hydrophones 2,3, 5, and 10 out of the water to prevent their loss. We risked buoys in less exposed locations for the chance to see how fish reacted to the hurricane. As the storm hit, "Nicky" was still sitting near buoy 1, which was sheltered from the biggest waves by Long Beach Island so we left that one in the water. The buoys recorded some striped bass and some of Dana Rowles' tagged summer flounder, but also lots of noise that might have blocked more tag transmissions. Following the storm, we replaced the buoys and made an attempt to relocate all the tagged fish that were present before the storm using mobile tracking. "Snacks" was the only striped bass in Little Egg Inlet/Great Bay. "Agent Jeitner", a recently tagged striped bass, was found still up the Mullica River, but not near a buoy. We couldn't finish the mobile tracking search because the weather turned dangerous for a small boat. "Nicky" and "Snacks" were both heard recently in Grassy Channel and "Lightning", tagged in April, appeared briefly at buoy 13.

Clare Ng

While mobile tracking a summer flounder in Shooting Thorofare this morning, Dave Messerschmid presented Brian, Dana, and I with a 30-inch striped bass. Unfortunately, the striper was gut-hooked, and though we rushed him back to the holding tanks to recuperate, he died 2 hours later from a ruptured stomach. The good news is that while guided by Dave Messerschmid, I managed to land a 36?-inch striped bass on a live spot. Dave named the fish Clare (I'm not narcissistic). Clare was successfully tagged and released from Fish Hawk II, and an hour of mobile tracking following release indicates that this fish is doing well, and swimming near "Sparky".

Clare Ng

Another attempt to locate striped bass using the directional mobile hydrophone found only "Blues Clues" in the Mullica River, sitting a little north of Swan Bay, as he has been for the past month. "Sparky" and "Murray" are no longer at Goosebar, nor anywhere in Little Egg Harbor nor Great Bay. We also attempted night fishing in the Mullica River near the parkway bridge with eels, but caught only bluefish.

Clare Ng

Today, Dana Rowles and I found "Sparky" sitting at Goosebar in Little Egg Harbor using the directional mobile hydrophone. Environmental (water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, tidal cycle), atmospheric (cloud cover and wind velocity), biological (bottom structure and vegetation) and behavioral movements by "Sparky" were recorded every 15 minutes for 4 hours. Instead of presence/absence data as tagged individuals swim past a moored hydrophone, tracking striped bass with the mobile hydrophone allows us to get detailed understanding of the environmental factors and their patterns of movement with greater spatial resolution.

At 2.30pm, George Delaport and friend on "Bass Buster" pulled up alongside our boat at Goosebar, and offered us a striped bass to tag! We rushed back to the station, revived him in a holding tank, implanted him with an internal acoustic tag; "Murray" has been happily returned to Goosebar. Dana and I sincerely apologize for hastily disappearing from the scene, and would like to now express our sincere gratitude to George Delaport for kindly assisting us with our striped bass project. Thank you!

Thomas M. Grothues

I dove the sod banks near Little Egg Inlet and saw several striped bass, but the there are no new contacts in the array. Ahab was caught and released by an angler in Shinecock Inlet, Long Island, New York. Ahab was in good health and lives to swim on.

Clare Ng

Using a directional mobile hydrophone on a 20-foot boat, Dana Rowles and I were able to locate "Blues Clues" in the Mullica River, a little north of Swan Bay. With water temperatures in the mid-70's, "Blues Clues" did not appear to move much while he sat along a bend in the river in 20 feet of water. No other tagged fish were located in Great Bay, Mullica River, Wading River, or Bass River.

Thomas M. Grothues and Clare Ng

This week was our first seining attempt at Graveling Point. In 5 tows, we caught two striped bass, both approximately 13 inches in length. They were tagged on their backs below the dorsal fin with a yellow tag, and immediately released. This is a new striped bass project involving the tagging of juvenile and young striped bass (all stripers that are too small to be tagged acoustically) in an attempt to better understand their dispersal pattern and migratory behaviors from the Mullica River- Great Bay system. If recaptured, please cut the tag off and call (609) 296-5260 extension 249 with the date, location, and length of fish.

Buoy #2 was redeployed. We serviced all of the mooring chains and scrubbed the hydrophones, which were heavily fouled with bryzoans and mussels. Blues Clues had moved up the river earlier this month but did not come back down and we were worried that fouling had prevented detection of a return trip because Blues Clues has made several two-way trips in the last month. However, a reference tag showed that even the fouled hydrophones are working well. Subsequently, we found Blues Clues upriver of hydrophone 9 and downriver from 10 using the mobile tracking gear, so the fish really is staying upriver. This week we also re-deployed Hydrophone 2, which had come loose and washed up on the beach, and put out a new hydrophone, 13, to monitor a potentially important gateway to Great Bay near Brigatine.

Thomas M. Grothues

It was a nice birthday present to catch and tag our biggest fish yet, Stephanie, on June 9, under the guidance of local Dave Messerschmid from his boat Fish Hawk II. Dave helped us again today and landed Sparky, another nice fish. Both fish were tagged outside of the array in Barnegat Bay, but we we'll see if they come into the Great Bay over the next two years. Yesterday, Buoy #2 (Little Egg Harbor Inlet) was discovered missing from its position by Roger Hoden. After a short search of the area, Buoy #2 was spotted on the beach, with the hydrophone still attached to it. It appears the shackle has corroded already! It was retrieved and brought back to the station for servicing because it was heavily fouled. The battery at Lower Bank Bridge appears to have died after only 3 days. Thus, no data was collected from Lower Bank from July 5th to July 9th.

Thomas M. Grothues

Striped bass Martha was caught at night in Absecon by Ray Flemer of the Absecon Bay Sportsmen Center. Martha's external tag was missing so Ray didn't know she was a study subject until too late, but he did return Martha's transmitter as soon as he found it. The information that Ray provided on mortality and on Martha's movement outside of the array is helpful. We thank Ray and ask local bass anglers to support his business in return.

Thomas M. Grothues

Yesterday we serviced the hydrophone moorings chains near the inlet (2, 3, 4, and 5), replaced batteries, and switched the hydrophone at station 4 for one using on a more quiet re-transmission frequency. Today we pulled the hydrophone at Station 8, because it often hears fish that are also being heard by the hydrophone at Station 7. This means that there will be no further records at 8 (Colin's Hole); instead, look for fish moving directly between Station 7 and 9. We also fished, but got skunked.

Thomas M. Grothues

Good News, Bad News. Over the weekend Blues Clues returned to the Mullica River/Great Bay estuary after six months away. Blues Clues was the second fish tagged for the project (November 12, 2002). Many of the fish that we tagged this spring have left the estuary after a trip or two up the river. Some were recorded leaving through Little Egg Inlet. On a sour note, the power source at Hydrophone 10 (Lower Bank) failed, so nothing was recorded for two weeks. I finally got a break from the rain to go fix it, but the absence of acoustic contacts from this period doesn't mean the fish didn't go up river. Look for upriver movement through Buoys 6-9 without a "return" trip to see who might still be upriver.

Ryan Nichols

Today we used a mobile hydrophone on a skiff to locate fish away from our regularly monitored sites. Veteran tracker Dewayne Fox, graduate students Clare Ng and Dana Rowles, and I began searching by dipping the hydrophone just outside Graveling Point. We located "Shorty" due west of our first location and tracked the signal across the inter-coastal waterway to Oysterbed Point, where the striper was swimming along the bank. We next headed past Deep Point working our way up the Mullica. We located "El Guapo" just outside Blood Ditch. Two fish, "George K" and "Anna Banana" were found up the Bass River. Going back out of the Bass River and farther up the Mullica we found "Glo" at the mouth with the Wading River. No other tagged fish were located, although we continued the search up to the Batsto River.

Ryan Nichols

We made several trips to Pebbly Beach and Graveling Point with nothing to show for our efforts but some large American eels and small white perch. This morning Thomas Grothues, Nicole Salvi and myself ventured out to Pebbly Beach again. We were greeted with a pleasant morning and good people. We fished through the morning with a few small bass being caught as well as some black drum. Thanks to Steve Stoop and Jessie Hewitt for donating three stripers to the cause. After watching what seemed to be everyone around me with tight lines, I finally managed to land a striped bass suitable for tagging. All of these fish were located at Bouy #6 by May 5. It was nice to see movement up River, as this indicates health. We have begun gearing up for the manual tracking side of this project. Portable hydrophones are being assembled and plans are tentative to look up the Mullica for some of the tagged stripers. I would also like to thank the most recent "adopt-a-fish" donations. We will have your fish pinging away in no time.

Thomas M. Grothues

Over the last few weeks we have tagged 9 more striped bass caught by anglers at Graveling Point. At one point we had too many at once for our small portable tanks and had to return a few to the water untagged! The radio signal from Buoy 5 at Fish factory has become weak and is not always being detected. We changed the antennae, and then the whole hydrophone, but the OK signal was still not always being received. We finally increased the receiver antennae gain and can hear it again at the cost of a little more radio noise. El Payaso came in the inlet and moved all the way up to the Parkway Bridge in a few days. This is the first fish of those that we tagged last year to have returned to the Mullica River. Bacardi, the first fish tagged at Graveling Point, moved up past the Parkway Bridge and several days later came down river again and left through Little Egg Inlet. Hydrophone 10, at Lower Bank Bridge, is now installed.

Thomas M. Grothues

Ryan Nichols, Roland Hagan, Gina Petruzelli and I walked Graveling Point late afternoon on Monday 3/24 and near the bottom of the tide on the night of 3/25 recruiting fish donations. I met many great people who shared the lore on local fishing; they were enthused about the project and willing to donate fish they planned to release. A couple of fish were too small to tag (15 inches), but angler Gregg O'Connell volunteered a legal fish (24 inches) that was successfully tagged and released. We will be continuing in our tagging efforts at Graveling Point and elsewhere and greatly appreciate the support we are getting.

Ryan Nichols

Spring and stripers may be just around the corner, which puts the project into motion. Moorings were repaired and assembled, followed by the deployment of hydrophones near the research station: Egg Harbor Inlet (Bouy #2), Shooting Thorofare (Bouy #3), and Fish Factory (Bouy #5). We are logging data and looking for stripers. Thanks to the NJ Parkway Authority for giving us the green light to place antenna on the bridge near Chestnut Neck Marina. The antenna and receiver will be installed later this week. This will be very convenient given the rumor of small bass being caught up in the Mullica near Bass River this past weekend. Surgery equipment and fishing supplies are being purchased for the continued effort on tagging. With this in mind preparations are being made for the fishing fury that will begin and hopes that the bass are on the way.

Thomas M. Grothues

We have some time to repair the moorings that we recovered, and service the hydrophones with fresh batteries. We are getting everything ready for spring, when we will put the hydrophones back out and try to find the lost ones. Scott's Bait and Tackle is reporting that small (less than 16 inches) stripers are being caught by white perch anglers fishing on the ice. These are too small to tag with our acoustic transmitters and no hydrophones are in the water, but it is more evidence that striped bass use that part of the river during the coldest days of winter.

Thomas M. Grothues

The Arabella collects the remaining moorings near the inlet, but the tide is too low for this big boat to go upriver. When we have a chance to go up river later, the Mullica has frozen over near the buoys, and later the Arabella freezes in as well! Now we have to wait and hope that the ice doesn't break our buoys; there is nothing we can do. This is frustrating! The JCNERR pulls out the temperature/salinity dataloggers to prevent ice damage.

Thomas M. Grothues

We lose another buoy, this one from Little Egg Inlet during heavy winds on Christmas Eve. We try grappling for it but the bottom holds the grapple too hard. No fish have been heard lately and it is getting very cold. In light of this and the corroding shackles, we decide to pull the rest of the hydrophones out of the water and rebuild the moorings. First we collect the hydrophones, but we need to come back with the bigger boat to pull up the anchors.

Thomas M. Grothues

Someone returned a floating buoy to us. I hoped that it was from the Chestnut neck hydrophone but soon find out that we lost another one, this time from near the Fish Factory. Several of us go out and drag a grapple from a small boat and immediately hook up the hydrophone and chain laying on the bottom. We bring it on board and find that it is still in good shape and working. The mooring shackles and part of the chain are corroding fast; this explains why the buoy broke free.

Thomas M. Grothues

We deployed the REMUS vehicle to look at the Mullica River bottom north of the Parkway Bridge, a popular fishing spot. We sit at anchor for four hours while the REMUS works. Even though it dives underwater a minute after we let it go, we can follow it's progress with hydrophones much like tracking a fish. It makes tight tracks like a lawn mower at high speed.

Thomas M. Grothues

Three of the tagged fish show up at the bridge, then, at the fish factory, then at the inlet and then we loose them from our hydrophones. This was a great few fishing days in the inlet according to Scott's Bait and Tackle. It looks like our tagged fish joined a crowd of other fish in the inlet and then left with them!

Thomas M. Grothues

No one is catching fish upstream any more, so we try for some in the inlet. Dr. Dewayne Fox catches and tags a nice fish ("El Piaso") in the inlet. At night, I get a call from technician Roland Hagan that he caught a bass near the station and is holding it. I race down, tag it, and release it. It is swimming strong, but we don't record it going through any of the hydrophone gates. I think it headed towards Atlantic City along the Intercoastal Water Way channel. That is our "blind spot" because we cannot point antennas that way. Maybe it will come back. Later, Tony catches one ("Briggs") in front of the fish factory and it stays there for a while after release. The water is getting very cold but we keep fishing. One of the hydrophone buoys near Chestnut Neck disappears. We grapple for several hours for but find no gear.

Thomas M. Grothues

We deliberately started fishing for bass late in the season, hoping that we could start our project with some fish that might be here for the winter. We might have started too late; it got cold early this winter. Still, we fished several days in the cold rain near the Parkway Bridge and caught and tagged another striped bass, "Blues Clues", tag number 168. Dr. Dewayne Fox also caught a small Oyster toadfish on a huge clam. Many people are catching fish in the inlet, but we want to learn first about fish that stay over winter, so we continue fishing upstream.

Thomas M. Grothues

We caught and tagged our first striped bass! We left Chestnut Neck Marina just before high tide and within minutes were at the Parkway Bridge next to another boat quietly fishing in the dark. We put eels overboard on Number 4 circle hooks and 3 oz bank sinkers on a dropper loop. I was still getting fishing gear ready when I looked up to see technician Ryan Nichols fighting a fish. I netted it and put it into the surgery tank. Because it was so dark and we didn't want to bother the other fishermen with our lights, we went back to the dock. The fish was floating upside-down and very quite in the anesthetic and I was nervous that it was dead. I worked quickly and put in tag # 175. We changed the surgery tank water and the fish began to wake up. I took it in my arms and lay on the dock with the fish in the water and it really started to kick hard. I let it go and immediately heard the receiver in the boat, which was tuned to the nearest hydrophone, begin to click! During this time the other boat docked and the people came to see what we were doing. They were mad but good-natured that they had spent many hours there and had no bites, but we caught a fish as soon as we arrived. They were using eels, too. Sorry guys, better luck next time! Ryan named his fish "Ras". For another hour we tracked it as it went first upstream to the bridge against the tide, which had turned, and then back past the middle hydrophone to the downstream hydrophone, and then no more as it left the area.

Thomas M. Grothues

This week we set hydrophone moorings in the Mullica River. We set one in a deep hole just down-river of Chestnut Neck Marina, another just north of Chestnut Neck Marina, and one just north of deep hole near the NJ Parkway Bridge. We had to file a plan with the NJ Parkway Authority asking for permission to mount antennas on the bridge to record signals from these hydrophones, because RUMFS is too far. The application is a long process. In the meantime, the great people at Chestnut Neck Marina gave us permission to install a small antenna and receiver on their dock that will be able to receive signals at least from the closest hydrophone. They also let us keep the boat there so we can spend some time catching fish. Thanks, Anne Marie!

Thomas M. Grothues

We set three more hydrophone moorings this week, one by the old Fish Factory, one in Grassy Channel, and one near a steep drop-off inside Little Egg Inlet. Earlier, we picked up the first hydrophone during low tide and moved it up the steep slope into slightly shallower water. Now it stays afloat. We tied an acoustic tag to a fishing line and lowered it into the water from a boat while floating near the hydrophones. We could see that the hydrophones heard the tags and sent a radio signal each time because we had a receiver in the boat with us. The signals were also detected by the receiver at RUMFS, so we knew that the antennas there worked.

Thomas M. Grothues

Hydrophone equipment arrived from Lotek, along with consultant Mitch Sisak. We assembled moorings (buoys and anchors), powered and tested all hydrophones. We took the deepest planned mooring out on the R/V (Research Vessel) Caletta and dropped it overboard after carefully measuring depth in the area along a steep underwater slope. We misjudged by about five feet; the buoy floated for just a few seconds before it sank out of sight! The extra chain was too heavy for it under the strong tidal flow. We watched as several boats ran right over where it should be and hoped that it wouldn't get damaged. During slack tide the buoy came to the surface and sent a "Battery OK" signal, so we knew it was still working.

Thomas M. Grothues

Installed antennas, power and communication wire to the weather tower at RUMFS and tested the receivers.

Thomas M. Grothues

This week's activities included finding and purchasing water proof housings for receivers, batteries, locks, cell phone modems, surgical and other supplies. We built a surgery cradle to hold fish in place for surgery and placed orders for anchors, chain, and other equipment. We practice surgery on dead striped bass that a fisherman donated, so that real surgery on live ones will be quick! We also look for sites to mount antennae and measure radio noise in the area to decide what frequencies NOT to use on the hydrophone radios.