Accelerating Electronic Tag Development for Tracking Free-Ranging Marine Animals at Sea

This project developed, tested, and deployed archival and satellite tags for the Tagging of Pacific Pelagics TOPP. Our efforts centered both on improving existing technologies and on developing new tools. These new tools have provided TOPP the tools necessary to address fundamental questions in biological oceanography concerning the distribution and critical, habitats of pelagic organisms. We developed a GPS tag using Fastloc technology making it possible to study animal movements on a scale of 10-50 meters. The OPS tag design developed under this NOPP award is now commercially available from the Sea Mammal Research Unit, Wildlife Computers Inc. Redmond WA and Sirtrack Ltd New Zealand.We developed a CTD tag that is now commercially available from the Sea Mammal Research unit. This tags is accurate to - 5dBar, - 0.001 deg C, and 0.003 mScm. These tags have made possible a series of international collaborations SEAOS and the IPY International Polar Year initiative MEOP Marine Mammals as Explorers of the Ocean Pole to Pole.