Weakfish Project Overview
Starting in 2007, Rutgers University Marine Field Station in Tuckerton, New Jersey, has carried out a study on weakfish (Cynoscion regalis) movement and spawning in the Great Bay-Mullica River estuary and in the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve (JCNERR).
Just as in the Striped Bass Project, the fish is surgically implanted with an internal acoustic beacon that makes it possible to track each individual fish. Long-term tags will be used in order to not only learn more about habitat preferences, but also determine whether adult weakfish return to the same estuary each year. The tags will also provide information on the timing of seasonal migrations.
Spawning noises
Members of the Drum family, including the weakfish, generate particular sounds during their spawning activity. The males are especially noisy. The research team from Rutgers are listening to these sounds through an estuary-wide array of underwater listening microphones and recorders
If you wish to listen to the sound of a spawning weakfish, you can listed to this audio clip from a previous study carried out by Rutgers and University of Florida: http://www.marine.rutgers.edu/leophone.
More info
For more information regarding the weakfish project, contact Assistant Research Professor Thomas M. Grothues at grothues@marine.rutgers.edu.
