464 
Fishery Bulletin 108(4) 
understanding finer-scale movements are aided by co- 
operative efforts such as those of the Atlantic Coopera- 
tive Telemetry (ACT) network, which is a large scale 
collaborative telemetry network of -30 groups from 
Maine to South Carolina (D. Fox and T. Savoy, personal 
commun. 7 ' 8 ). Such coordinated efforts are steps in the 
right direction for species conservation. Once fine-scale 
movements are understood, in particular for aggrega- 
tion areas, fishery managers will be better informed 
as to how to limit interactions between fisheries and 
the near-endangered Atlantic sturgeon while minimiz- 
ing economic impacts. Improving estimates of fishery 
bycatch mortality would be of enormous value, in par- 
ticular if these estimates included a spatial perspective. 
Regardless of the outcome of the current consideration 
of Atlantic sturgeon for listing under the endangered 
species act, a coordinated effort among academic, fed- 
eral, state, and local institutions will be required to 
conserve this ancient species. 
Acknowledgments 
We would like to thank W. Kramer (National Oceanic 
and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fish- 
eries Service), D. Byrne (New Jersey Department of 
Environmental Protection), J. Sowles (Maine Depart- 
ment of Marine Resources), and J. King (Massachusetts 
Division of Marine Fisheries) for providing the data 
sets used in this study. We would like to thank M. 
Wiggins for survey design and technical support and 
Captain S. Cluett and the crew of the RV Seawolf for 
helping collect data in New York waters. Funding for 
the NY trawl surveys was provided by State Wildlife 
Grant award no. 910245 and NOAA research grant no. 
NA07NMF4550320. The Steven Berkeley Fellowship 
award from the American Fisheries Society further 
supported the research of K. Dunton. 
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