376 
Fishery Bulletin 107(3) 
Table 2 
Hook type, hooking location, release date, fish size, PSAT data recovery, and net movement data for striped bass (Morone saxati- 
lis) caught on live eels ( Anguilla rostrata) in the winter recreational fishery off the coast of Virginia and North Carolina. Starred 
(*) data recovery percentages indicate instances where PSATs were physically recovered, allowing a full download of all archived 
data. Minimum straight line displacements (MSLDs) were calculated in nautical miles (nmi) from the coordinates of tagging to 
the coordinates of first reliable satellite contact (Argos location code 1, 2, or 3). 
Fish 
Hook type 
Hooking location 
Date released 
Total length (cm) 
Data recovery (%) 
MSLD (nmi) 
1 
J 
Deep 
26 Jan 08 
94.0 
90 
29.9 
2 
J 
Upper jaw 
26 Jan 08 
94.0 
100* 
56.3 
3 
C 
Jaw corner 
26 Jan 08 
96.5 
87 
27.8 
4 
C 
Upper jaw 
27 Jan 08 
111.8 
100* 
34.3 
5 
C 
Jaw corner 
27 Jan 08 
94.0 
90 
58.6 
6 
J 
Deep 
2 Feb 08 
96.5 
96 
12.5 
7 
C 
Upper Jaw 
2 Feb 08 
104.1 
30 
27.1 
8 
J 
Upper Jaw 
2 Feb 08 
101.6 
100* 
32.5 
where L 
= the estimated value of the likelihood function 
externally, either 
in the upper jaw or 
the corner of the 
at its maximum; and 
jaw. Two of five fish caught on J hooks were hooked 
P 
= the number of estimated parameters (Burn- 
deeply and the other three were hooked externally. 
ham and Anderson, 2002). 
Hooks were removed from all fish before they were 
tagged and released. 
We performed fast Fourier transform (FFT) analy- 
Eight of the ten PSATs popped up 
on schedule and 
ses to assess any periodicities inherent in the time 
transmitted data that were received by satellites oi 
series of the three recovered tags for which 100% of 
the Argos system. A single, weak transmission was 
the archived data were obtained. FFT approximates a 
function composed of sine and cosine terms from a time 
series (Chatfield, 1996) and is particularly well suited 
to analyzing high-resolution data sets resulting from 
archival tagging studies (Graham et al., 2006; Shepard 
et al., 2006). The influence of periodic components in 
a time series is indicated by the magnitude of the cor- 
responding spectral peak in a periodigram (Shepard et 
al., 2006). Spectral components of fractional periodici- 
ties (i.e., part of a tidal cycle, moon phase, etc.) occur- 
ring before and after the tag deployment duration can 
interfere with each other, generating frequency peaks 
that do not represent meaningful behavioral period- 
icities (Shepard et al., 2006). We therefore applied a 
Hamming window to the depth records of each of the 
three striped bass to reduce the effects of such adja- 
cent spectral components (Oppenheim and Schafer, 
1989). All statistical analyses were performed with the 
software package R, vers. 2.7.1 (R Development Core 
Team, 2008). 
Results 
Ten striped bass, ranging in size from 94 to 112 cm 
TL (mean = 96.5 cm), were caught on live eels rigged 
with circle or J hooks in coastal waters (<20 m depth) 
of Virginia and North Carolina during late January 
and early February 2008 (Table 2). Fight times ranged 
from 1 min 10 sec to 5 min 30 sec (mean=2 min 16 
sec). All five fish caught on circle hooks were hooked 
received from one of the two remaining tags on the 
day it was scheduled to release, and no transmis- 
sions were received from the other PSAT. The tags 
had sufficient battery power to transmit data for ap- 
proximately 30 days, and during that time three of 
the eight reporting PSATs washed ashore. Two of 
these tags (from fish 2 and 4) were physically recov- 
ered while transmitting data. Transmissions from 
the third tag (fish 7) ceased when the PSAT washed 
ashore four days after surfacing; this tag was not 
recovered. A fourth tag (fish 8) remained adrift dur- 
ing its transmission period and subsequently washed 
ashore north of Cape Hatteras, NC, where it was 
recovered by a recreational angler. 
Data recovery rates varied among the eight trans- 
mitting tags. All of the archived data were manually 
downloaded from the three tags that were recovered 
after having washed ashore. For the four tags that 
remained adrift during the transmission period and 
not subsequently recovered (fish 1, 3, 5 and 6), data 
recovery rates were high, ranging from 87 to 96%. 
The PSAT from fish 7 surfaced just off the seaside 
of the Eastern Shore of Virginia and washed ashore 
on Parramore Island after four days, at which time 
transmissions ceased to be received. During the four- 
day transmission period, 30% of the archived data 
were recovered from this tag. 
From a visual inspection of depth and temperature 
data we inferred that all eight striped bass with re- 
porting tags, including the two fish that were deeply 
hooked with J hooks, survived for 30 days after re- 
