Manual to monitor fish behaviour and water variables remotely in real time in South Africa inland aquatic ecosystems.

Radio telemetry involves the use of radio waves to transmit information between devises across an open or remote space. From the late 1950s radio telemetry techniques have been used to track fish to monitor the movements, behaviour and space use of fishes. These techniques have more recently been used extensively to evaluate problems associated with fish migration and the ecological consequences of water quality and quality variables state alterations. Although radio telemetry techniques are still ideally suited for use in riverine ecosystems that have background acoustic noise (contain riffles and rapids), today other platforms, including acoustic telemetry systems for example, are available for use in rivers, lakes, estuaries and in marine ecosystems. In South Africa numerous universities, the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity and conservation organisations including Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks agency and the South African National Parks have and/or are using telemetry techniques to track fish in their natural environments. The South African inland fish tracking programme (FISHTRAC) makes use of radio telemetry tracking techniques developed and tested by Wireless Wildlife Pty., Ltd. to track fish tagged with small transceivers (tags) in riverine and lake ecosystems. This system allows researchers, technicians, etc. to find and track tagged fish manually and or remotely (via the internet) and monitor water depth, temperature and some quality variable states of river and lake ecosystems. The size of the tags affect the minimum size of fish that can be used in telemetry studies (>500 g) and last up to three years. This manual has been designed for managers, conservationists and researchers who are interested in using radio telemetry techniques established through the FISHTRAC programme in South Africa. The manual provides users with information to obtain radio telemetry equipment and use it appropriately to track fish in our river and lake ecosystems, and to monitor the ecological consequences of water quality and quantity variable changes for the management and conservation of our ecosystems and the animals that live in them. The FISHTRAC system is reliable, easy to implement and capable of addressing a range of ecosystem management and conservation questions.