Sawfish to be tracked

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Matt Flynn
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Sawfish to be tracked

Post by Matt Flynn »

NT GOVT PRESS RELEASE: Sawfish Study Focuses on Instinctive Survival

A freshwater sawfish that has been living at the Territory Wildlife Park (TWP) for the past 18 months is set to be released back into the wild tomorrow.

TWP curator Dion Wedd said the released sawfish would be tagged with acoustic tags that allow tracking with a hydrophone to help determine if instinctive survival behaviour is maintained after time in captivity.

Mr Wedd said this project is being supported by the National Environmental Research Program (NERP), Charles Darwin University (CDU), NT Fisheries and the TWP.

“Former TWP aquarium supervisor Kate Buckley is a CDU PhD candidate leading this project on freshwater sawfish,” Mr Wedd said.

“The study replicates work done by TWP and NT Fisheries in November 2010 when we released a two metre male sawfish from our aquarium into the Daly River with the National Geographic Mega Fishes project.

“The idea behind the 2010 project was to test whether sawfish released from captivity are capable of reintegrating back into the wild after several years in captivity.

“The aim of the current project is to further test the idea of post release survivorship by collecting juvenile sawfish and maintaining them in captivity for six months and comparing the results with wild caught, tagged and released sawfish.

“Once the sawfish is tagged and released into the Adelaide River tomorrow at the exact site from where it was collected 18 months ago, it will be intensively tracked for 48 hours and then tracked for 12 hour periods during the next 25 days.

“After this initial period of intensive tracking, data will be collected by an acoustic receiver array that has been deployed in the Adelaide River as part of the NERP.

“The receivers will pick up the signal from the acoustic tags in the sawfish and log this information, with data downloaded every time the sawfish passes the receiver.

“And while tomorrow’s release of the sawfish will not provide data for Kate’s PhD, it will be a valuable pilot study on the effectiveness of the techniques used for her PhD, and will support the data already gained from the release of the Daly River sawfish in 2010.

Ends


cuddlescooper
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Re: Sawfish to be tracked

Post by cuddlescooper »

They might end up tracking a gator rather then a saw fish. lol
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Re: Sawfish to be tracked

Post by Matt Flynn »

I don't think it will get to mate either as it is missing a tooth ...
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Dundee Hombre
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Re: Sawfish to be tracked

Post by Dundee Hombre »

Might end up in a net 100 Kim's north of the Daly
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