Migration and distribution of released Acipenser sinensis in the sea based on Pop-up Archival Tag technique

Application of Pop-up Archival Tag (PAT) to research of migration and distribution of Chinese sturgeon (Acipenser sinensis) in the ocean was presented in this paper.In 2006 and 2008,14 individual fish tagged with PAT were released to Yangtze Estuary,including 6 3-year-old individuals and 8 9-year-old individuals,respectively.The data from 9 tagged fish were successfully transmitted and received by ARGOS satellite and the rate for data recovery amounted to 64%.Results revealed that Chinese sturgeon tagged with PAT would migrate to sea within one month after being released.The tagged fish can survive for more than 6 months,and they distributed in the continental shelf from western Korean coast in the north to Fujian coastal areas in the south.The migration range spanned 4°longitude and 9° latitude.The longest distance of the fish migration amounted to 697 km.The migration pattern of Chinese sturgeon was random and circuitous.The results showed that releasing of fish tagged with PAT was successful.