MATOS - Mid-Atlantic Acoustic Telemetry Observation System

Project Title: Coastal foraging and spawning migration movements of shortnose and Atlantic sturgeons within the Gulf of Maine

MATOS Project Code: GOMESTG

Data Type: Data

Project Duration: April 2010 - on-going

Project Description: First, we determined roughly 80% of late-stage shortnose sturgeon females residing in the Merrimack River leave the river in March-April and travel to known spawning sites in the Kennebec River and presumably participate in Kennebec River spawning. In addition to monitoring tagged female’s coastal spawning migration movements, we are also planning to investigate characteristics of the coastal migration corridor and how pre-spawning shortnose sturgeon movements intersect with proposed offshore wind projects in the Gulf of Maine. Second, as part of the sturgeon carcass salvage effort, we were drawn to the Plum Island Sound – Ipswich Bay areas off the coast Massachusetts by two carcass recovery events and learned the entire area appears to be used as a coastal Atlantic sturgeon foraging area, likely targeting abundant sand lance communities. Exploring and identifying these foraging aggregations is a way get some understanding of critical habitat as well as population dynamics.

Principal Investigator:	Micah Kieffer (Conte Anadromous Fish Research Laboratory)
Email:	mkieffer@usgs.gov

Point of Contact:	Micah Kieffer
Email:	mkieffer@usgs.gov

Citations:

Kieffer, M. 2024

USGS Gulf of Maine sturgeon