How to read the buoy data tables

Buoy 4 - The Narrows

Buoy 4 – Narrows: Name of Buoy, which can be located on the map on our Homepage.

Date: The day that the “hit” was registered

Time Range: The period of time that the fish was within range of the buoy in consecutive hours-minutes-seconds.

Fish Tag #: Identification number of the sonic tags. Clicking on the number will link you to the page of the corresponding fish.

Appearances: Number of actual “hits” within the time period listed.

Example: By looking at the first line on our sample chart we can tell that on June 15, 2004, fish number 69 (Dick) was in the area of buoy number 4 (the Narrows), for a period of time lasting approximately 3 minutes (between 5:45AM and 5:48AM), and gave 6 positive ID’s (hits) during this period.

Buoy Identification

Buoy 1- Wood Island

Buoy 2- Monument Island

Buoy 3- UNE Gazebo

Buoy 4- The Narrows

Buoy 5- Biddeford Pool Inlet

Buoy 6- Gooseberry Island

Buoy 7- Inside Biddeford Pool

How to read fish data tables

Dick #69  

Dick was released on 10/13/03

Date: The day that the “hit” was registered.

Time Range: The period of time that the fish was within range of the buoy in consecutive hours-minuets-seconds.

Buoy #: Identifies which buoy picked up the “hit”.

Appearances: Number of actual “hits” or positive ID’s.

Example: This data was all collected on June 15, and tracks fish # 69 (Dick’s) movement though our collection system over a period of time between approximately 1am-5: 30 am. Starting at the top of the data table we can see that dick started his day at buoy #2 (Monument Island), and stayed there for 2 hours and 22 minuets giving off 288 positive ID’s.

Dick then moved out of range of our buoys for approximately 40 minutes, however, because he does not show up at any other buoy we know that Dick was still in the general area of buoy #2. Because of the half mile range on our tag’s transmitters we know that Dick was greater than approximately ½ mile away from buoy #2, but further then ½ mile from any of our other buoys. This most likely places Dick within the Saco river basin and/ or the Saco River Jetty for those 40 minuets. This is the beauty of having our collection system “gated”. Even though we are not tracking Dick “real time” during these 40 minuets, we can still approximate his location.

Following the data table down, we see that as the day progresses Dick moves away from Buoy #2 (Monument Island) and swims up river, passing Buoy #3 (UNE Gazebo) between 5:15am-6:00am, and then Buoy number #4 (The Narrows) around 5:45am.   It took Dick approximately one hour to travel from the mouth of the river to the narrows.  As we keep gathering data we will now try to determine why Dick was moving up river during that time period.

-For more information on how this data is gathered, please check our Equipment Page and our  Data Analysis Page .

-For more information on the location of our buoys, please check our Homepage, Buoy Data Collection Page, and our Fish Data Collection Page.