Evidence of homing of black rockfish Sebastes inermis using biotelemetry

The black rockfish Sebastes inermis is one of the most important fishery species along the coast from southern Hokkaido to Kyushu, Japan and is often found in rocks and Zostera areas. We conducted biotelemetry using coded ultrasonic transmitters to clarify the movement of the black rockfish that inhabited the seawall of the Kansai International Airport. We released 25 black rockfish at two points. One was the airport seawall and the other was side shallows off the Sensyu district. Seventeen black rockfish returned to their capture site after release. We used the V-test to deter- mine whether the direction of movement was random or orientated. The black rockfish moved at random along the seawall within some hours after release (P > 0.05). Four hours after release, they moved to their home site intentionally (P < 0.0025).

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