Photo by Travis S., Flickr
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is using radio tracking to determine what habitats are important to northern pike.
In the winter, northern pike need slow moving water with adequate oxygen to survive. However, sediment fills in many of these areas that the pike seek, making the areas uninhabitable.
The DNR uses dredging to get rid of the sediment, but the process is expensive and, consequently, only a few areas will receive dredging. The radio tracking helps the DNR decide which areas are most in need of the dredging – if they find a high-concentration of northern pike in a location, there is a greater chance that they will choose to dredge that location.
Read the full article about the Iowa DNR’s radio tracking here.
