Mackerel tracking in the Northwest Arm

The recent decisions to close Atlantic mackerel commercial and bait fisheries in Canada to promote stock rebuilding have drawn attention to knowledge gaps in the species' biology. Electronic tagging of mackerel can have an important role in documenting stock structure and movements and estimating key demographic parameters to enhance understanding of stock status toward more effective fisheries management. Electronic tagging has been used in the provision of fisheries management advice in many jurisdictions.

It could provide similar benefits for mackerel if effective methods for handling and tagging the species can be developed. Mackerel are very sensitive to handling and efforts to track them with electronic tagging have been limited. In this project, we will develop tagging protocols using a field pilot in the Northwest Arm to evaluate survival of mackerel and track behaviour within the V2LNASTI array.