Synopsis

Naval Weapons Station Earle (NWSE) is located in Monmouth County, NJ USA. Situated on the Raritan Bay, NWSE spans an approximate 3,500 acres and is bordered by the New Jersey coastline to the east and Sandy Hook Bay to the North. The base is nearly 30 miles south of New York City and notably situated near major maritime shipping routes. Raritan Bay supports a diversity of marine wildlife, serving as a protected habitat for many migratory species. The urbanization and environmental significance of the area has led to monitoring efforts over the past eight years. Since approximately 2016, Monmouth University has deployed and maintained an acoustic telemetry array of 16 receivers surrounding Naval Weapons Station Earle and surrounding water-bodies.

To date there are a total of 893,879 detections from 13 unique fish species at 16 different stations. The observations were collected over a span of multiple years, the year 2021 had the most detections with 364,631 while 2023 had the fewest detections with 42,094. The most frequently detected species were unknown species, Atlantic sturgeon, and striped bass (564,190; 268,146; 58,727 respectively). The species with the fewest detections were winter flounder, black sea bass, little skate (28; 17; 4 respectively). This data provides valuable insights into the distribution and frequency of marine species detected across the relatively long term acoustic receiver array, contributing to the understanding of life history and marine life spatio-temporal trends.

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Atlantic Sturgeon

Among the plethora of species that utilize the waters surroudning NWSE is the Atlantic Sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus).
A large, anadromous, and long-lived fish broadly distributed along the Western Atlantic Ocean in five distinct population segments (DPS). The New York Bight DPS is listed as Endangered under the Endangered Species Act. There is currently little information of how Atlantic sturgeon utilize the waters surrounding NWSE. The installation and maintenance of acoustic telemetry receivers provide occurrences of previously tagged sturgeon in the area. This will enhance our understanding of spatio-temporal patterns, and fill in preexisting data gaps of the federally listed species in the waters surrounding NWSE and New York Harbor. This information will help the Navy to assess potential impacts to the species as a result of their operations, make effects determinations for use in potential consultations with regulatory agencies, and to explore options for avoiding, minimizing, or mitigating for potential impacts to the species. This information contributes to collaborative research efforts for Atlantic sturgeon occurring at numerous locations along the Atlantic coast.

Between 2016 and 2024 a total of 222,188 detections from 243 sturgeon were detected in the acoustic receiver array.

Fork lengths ranged from 0.6 to 1.8m while total lengths ranged from 0.4 to 2.2m. Median size at tagging was 0.87m (FL) and 1.01m (TL). Red vertical lines indicate mean size.

The general additive mixed model suggested that day of the year and SST (ºC) were strongly correlated with presence likelihood. Sea surface temperatures between 3-5ºC and 18–26ºC were associated with a lower presence likelihood. Conversely significant peaks of presence were associated with mid-summer and early to mid-fall times of the year indicative of a possible thermal threshold or a temperature sensitivity of Atlantic sturgeon.

General additive models analyzing the potential relationship between proportion of detections and time (hour) of day suggested a higher probability of detections from midnight to ~ 05:00 followed by a precipitous drop-off until around late evening or ~15:00.