Phill gave this talk at the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference in Canada.
The study took place in Central Salish Sea, What are forage fish? They are a food for rockfish salmon and sea birds.
Examples of Forage fish; Surf Smelt and Sand Lance.
They Looked at Summer spawning peaks and winter spawning peaks to gather inspiration for the project.
They used a special type of tag called a polymer elastomer or a VIE tag. This type of tag is non toxic and extremely cost effective allowing WDFW to identify the site and date of each sample. WDFW also gathered bilogical data.
Due to forage fish being food for many marine species it makes recapture very difficult.
The study tagged jus over 10,000 fish, but were only able to recapture 70 surf smelt. Where did the other 9,930 fish go?