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Web
Site Citation:
Nysewander, D.R.,
J.R. Evenson, B.M. Murphie, T.C. Cyra, D. Kraege, B. Hall, and D. Lambourn.
2005. Satellite Telemetry Project for Surf and White-winged Scoters
in Puget Sound, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Olympia,
WA. http://wdfw.wa.gov.
Washington Department
of Fish and Wildlife, Puget Sound Ambient Monitoring Program, Olympia,
WA.
For Further Information
Contact:
Dave
Nysewander
Joe Evenson
Acknowledgements:
This project was in
part funded by the Sea Duck Joint Venture, and state wildlife grants from
the federal government to the WDFW.
The assistance of
many people who graciously provided their time and expertise is greatly
appreciated:
| Eric Anderson
(University of Wyoming) |
WDFW Biologists:
| Don Kraege,
Jennifer Brookshier , Jeff Davis, Greg Falxa, Julie Henning,
Kye Iris, Kelly McAllister, Pat Miller, Ruth Milner, Brad Otto,
Greg Schirato Tammy Schmidt, Shannon Sewalt, Julie Stofel, Robin
Woodin |
|
Evergreen
State College Interns:
Jason Smith
and
Rodrigo Purpon |
|
| Jim Hodgson
(WDFW Pilot) |
| Jeff Well
(Rite Brothers Aviation) |
Volunteers:
Mark Schoenin
and
Don Norman |
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Scoter
Satellite Telemetry Project in Puget Sound
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| Figure
5. Locations of Scoter captures in the southern Puget Sound |
Methods
Captures
The
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife captured Surf and White-winged
scoters using a floating mist nets (Figure 4) during the four winters,
2003-2006. Captures were conducted in areas thought to be representative
of Puget Sound (Southern Puget Sound - Henderson Inlet, Eld Inlet,
and Peale Passage; Central Puget Sound - Greater Port Orchard area;
and the Northern Puget Sound - Penn Cove, Oak Harbor, and Birch
Bay) (Figure 5).
The nets were
set up during the pre-dawn hours of each capture day. Each mist
net was made up of two 3m by 18m nets fastened between three poles
supported by floating supports. The floating supports were made
buoyant by 4 floats per support, painted to resemble scoters. Each
end of the set was anchored to the sea floor. To attract scoters
to the set, decoys were placed running roughly parallel to the net,
in a way to look like a natural scoter flock .
When scoters
flew into the net they were immediately and carefully extracted
and placed into small pet kennels and transported to a nearby larger
boat where all pre-surgical processing took place.
All captured
birds were aged, sexed, measured, banded with stainless steel bands,
and recorded in the standard ways. Tissue samples and blood were
collected. Suitable scoters were transmitted with Satellite PTT
transmitters (2003-2005) or VHF transmitters (2004-2005). This study
utilized the latest procedures used by most sea duck research in
North America for implantation of transmitters (http://state.ak.us/adfg/wildlife/duck/scoter/surgery.htm).
In winter 2003 scoters that were not tranmitted with satellite PTT’s
were marked with nasal tags, using both stainless steel and monofilament
posts. |
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| Figure
4. Floating mist net with decoys. |
Figure
6. Nasal tags using both Monofilament and Stainless steel
posts. |
Satellite
Tracking
Data is transmitted from the PTT transmitter to satellites, relayed
to ARGOS, then forwarded to our project staff for tracking and analyses
(Figure 7).
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| Figure
7. Data is transmitted from the PTT transmitter to satellites,
relayed to ARGOS, then forwarded to our project staff for tracking
and analyses |
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