Estimating Survival Probabilities of Cambridge Bay Arctic Char Using Acoustic Telemetry Data and Bayesian Multi-state Capture-recapture Models

Arctic fishes are threatened by climatic change and other anthropogenic stressors yet information on how such changes impact survival remains scarce. Acoustic telemetry has become valuable for studying aspects of fish ecology including survival which is invaluable in understanding potential responses to changing conditions. In Cambridge Bay, NU, we have been using acoustic telemetry to study movements and habitat use of the culturally and commercially important Arctic Char (Salvelinus alpinus). Here, we combine acoustic telemetry data and Bayesian multi-state mark-recapture models to study the survival of Arctic Char from 2014-2018 in the region in freshwater and marine/estuarine habitats. We found that survival probabilities were high (>0.87) and models considering two environments (freshwater and marine) perform better than those considering three (including estuarine habitats). Furthermore, the survival in freshwater was higher than survival in marine/estuary environments. Overall, the results of this study further our understanding of important demographic parameters (i.e., survival) for Arctic Char in the region which will be useful in refining fishery management plans for the largest commercial fishery for this species in Canada.