Acoustic telemetry system as a novel approach for evaluating the effective attraction of fish to artificial reefs

Due to there being a lack of suitable approaches for evaluating the effectiveness of artificial reefs, two experiments were designed to examine the feasibility of acoustic telemetry, a rapidly developing method for tracking aquatic animals. The first experiment was conducted to understand the deployment procedures of an acoustic telemetry system and determine the appropriate deployment of receivers’ spacing, while the second experiment was conducted to quantify the site fidelity and habitat use of 11 reef fish in the Fangchenggang artificial reef area in the northern South China Sea, China. The results indicated that the logistic regression model was an effective way to balance the detection probability at different distances between the range test transmitter and receiver, with above 50% detection probability within 240 m and 80% detection probability within 110 m. The residency index, as a quantification of site fidelity, was 0.85 ± 0.24. The 100% minimum convex polygon, 95% kernel utilization distribution, and 50% kernel utilization distribution, which are the indicators of habitat use, were 34,522.94 ± 35,548.95, 1,467.52 ± 1,619.05, and 236.01 ± 294.59 m2, respectively. High site fidelity and the small spatial scale of habitat use for reef fish demonstrated that artificial reefs were an effective man-made structure to attract fish. Overall, this study supports the feasibility of the acoustic telemetry system, indicating that it provides a good approach for quantifying the associations between artificial reefs and fish.