Global Ocean Sensing – tagging whale sharks

Key concepts:

• using marine megafauna, such as whale sharks, to carry sensors
• long distance migrations can capture data in diverse locations
• tagging and sensors allow better visualization of marine life

Tagging individual animals as data collectors, complements the overview provided by the Global Ocean Observing System. The work of Simon Pierce with the Marine Megafauna Foundation with whale sharks highlights their potential as citizen scientists because of their capacity to migrate long distances and dive to great depths, carrying ocean sensors.

As technology for tagging grows more sophisticated, these and other marine creatures can serve as citizen scientists, collecting data during their ocean migrations. Tags, previously used to track where marine creatures travel, are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Fish and marine mammals can carry sensor tags, not only to record where they are, but also to track ocean currents, ocean temperature, bathymetry, oxygen content and pollutants.

Deep divers, such as whale sharks and elephant seals, can gather information about the health of deep ocean. Increasing sophistication of tagging and sensors, coupled with better satellite GPS accuracy can allow us to visualize information about marine life that is critical for wise decision-making about ocean ecosystems.Wendy Schmidt has addressed these challenges with the Ocean Health Xprize.

See the app @ earthDECKS.org
Saving Our Oceans from Plastic: articles by Zann Gill

Comments

Comments are closed.