Sea Creatures to Be Tracked Electronically
In a modern update of "fish and chips," researchers are planning a worldwide effort to track the movement of sea creatures tagged with tiny electronic devices.
Following pilot testing in the north Pacific, the Ocean Tracking Network will expand to the Atlantic, Arctic, Mediterranean and Gulf of Mexico.
Sea life ranging from salmon to whales, turtles to sharks, will be tagged so they can then be tracked as they swim past arrays of sensors placed at critical locations in the oceans.
In the new system tagged sea creatures will also collect data from other tagged animals they encounter.
That means scientists studying data from a shark, for example, would also know what other fish or sea mammals it had encountered in its travels -- or even the ones it ate if they were tagged.