Data from: Selection on fish personality differs between a no-take marine reserve and fished areas

Marine reserves can protect fish populations by increasing abundance and
body size, but less is known about the effect of protection on fish
behaviour. We looked for individual consistency in movement behaviours of
sea trout in the marine habitat using acoustic telemetry to investigate
whether they represent personality traits and if so, do they affect
survival in relation to protection offered by a marine reserve. Home range
size had a repeatability of 0.21, suggesting that it represents a
personality trait, while mean swimming depth, activity and diurnal
vertical migration were not repeatable movement behaviours. The effect of
home range size on survival differed depending on the proportion of time
fish spent in the reserve, where individuals spending more time in the
reserve experienced a decrease in survival with larger home ranges while
individuals spending little time in the reserve experienced an increase in
survival with larger home ranges. We suggest that the diversity of fish
home range sizes could be preserved by establishing networks of marine
reserves encompassing different habitat types, ensuring both a
heterogeneity in environmental conditions and fishing pressure.