Ocean observations using tagged animals

Fabien Roquet, Lars Boehme, Michael A. Fedak, Barbara Block, Jean-Benoît Charrassin, Daniel P. Costa, Luis A. Huckstädt, Christophe Guinet, Robert G. Harcourt, Mark A. Hindell, et al.

► To cite this version:

Fabien Roquet, Lars Boehme, Michael A. Fedak, Barbara Block, Jean-Benoît Charrassin, et al. Ocean observations using tagged animals. Oceanography, 2017, 30 (2), pp.139-139. 10.5670/oceanog.2017.235. hal-01581965

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CITATION

Roquet, F., L. Boehme, B. Block, J.-B. Charrassin, D. Costa, C. Guinet, R.G. Harcourt, M.A. Hindell, L.A. Hückstädt, C.R. McMahon, B. Woodward, and M.A. Fedak. 2017. Ocean observations using tagged animals. *Oceanography* 30(2):139, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2017.235.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2017.235

COPYRIGHT

This article has been published in *Oceanography*, Volume 30, Number 2, a quarterly journal of The Oceanography Society. Copyright 2017 by The Oceanography Society. All rights reserved.

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# Ocean Observations Using Tagged Animals

By Fabien Roquet, Lars Boehme, Barbara Block, Jean-Benoit Charrassin, Daniel Costa, Christophe Guinet, Robert G. Harcourt, Mark A. Hindell, Luis A. Hückstädt, Clive R. McMahon, Bill Woodward, and Mike A. Fedak

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**FIGURE 1.** Two popular tags used on a variety of marine animals. (a) The SPLASH data-archiving tag measures depth, temperature, and light level (©Wildlife Computers 2017). (b) The CTD-SRDL measures depth, temperature, and conductivity, and may also incorporate a fluorometer or an oxygen sensor (photo by Lars Boehme, SMRU). For both types of tags, data are transmitted to the ARGOS system, and the entire archived data set can be recovered if the tag is physically retrieved.

"Biologging" through temporary attachment of miniaturized data loggers on marine animals is revolutionizing the science of marine ecology (Block et al., 2011; Hussey et al., 2015). It also offers new capabilities to observe the ocean. In addition to collecting location and depth information useful for studying foraging behavior, these devices can record vertical profiles of temperature and salinity (Fedak, 2004; Costa et al., 2010), data that are used to improve knowledge of ocean state and its variability.

Producing oceanographic data useful for physical and biogeochemical studies puts strong constraints on the level of sensor accuracy. Reliable geolocation of data to an accuracy of a few kilometers or better is essential but is currently provided only by satellite using either ARGOS (±5 km) or GPS (<1 km) (Lowther et al., 2015). Pressure and temperature sensors with minimal accuracies of ±5 dbar and 0.1°C are desirable for both biology and physics applications. The SPLASH tag manufactured by Wildlife Computers (Figure 1a) meets those specifications. Owing to its small size, it can be used on most diving birds and marine mammal species, yielding thousands of profiles in various coastal and continental shelf areas.

Profiles of temperature alone remain of limited value for use in physical oceanography studies, especially in polar and shelf areas where salinity strongly influences ocean circulation. The CTD-satellite relay data logger (CTD-SRDL; Figure 1b; Boehme et al., 2009; see also Box 1 in Treasure et al., 2017, in this issue), developed and built at the Sea Mammal Research Unit, University of St Andrews, UK, is to date the only existing tag that incorporates a miniaturized CTD unit, with typical accuracies of ±0.02°C for temperature and ±0.05 or better for salinity. The more than 1,000 CTD-SRDL tags deployed to date (Charrassin et al., 2008; Fedak, 2013; Roquet et al., 2014), have yielded several hundred thousand vertical profiles of temperature and salinity in a wide variety of locations.

Since 2008, the international consortium Marine Mammals Exploring the Oceans Pole to Pole (MEOP, http://meop.net) has promoted the use of animals as oceanographers through better coordination of national efforts, centralization of quality-control activities, and distribution of a unified database of animal-derived oceanographic data (see review by Treasure et al., 2017, in this issue). To achieve global integration, the recently launched EuroGOOS Animal-Borne Instrument (ABI) Task Team is working to improve the quality control, data sharing protocols, and real-time integration of animal tagging data in operational marine networks and databases. Similar efforts are ongoing within the US Animal Telemetry Network (ATN, Block et al., 2016), the Canadian Ocean Tracking Network (OTN), and the Australian Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS). Continuous progress in miniaturization and telemetry are opening new possibilities that should increase even further the scientific and operational value of the approach.

## REFERENCES

Block, B.A., C.M. Holbrook, S.E. Simmons, K.N. Holland, J.S. Ault, D.P. Costa, A.C. Seitz, M.D. Arendt, J.C. Payne, B. Mahmoudi, and others. 2016. Toward a national animal telemetry network for aquatic observations in the United States. *Animal Biotelemetry* 4:6, https://doi.org/10.1186/s40317-015-0092-1.

Block, B.A., I.D. Jonsen, S.J. Jorgensen, A.J. Winship, S.A. Shaffer, S.J. Bograd, E.L. Hazen, D.G. Foley, G.A. Breed, A.-L. Harrison, and others. 2011. Tracking apex marine predator movements in a dynamic ocean. *Nature* 475:86–90, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10082.

Boehme, L., P. Lovell, M. Biuw, F. Roquet, J. Nicholson, S. Thorpe, M.P. Meredith, and M.A. Fedak. 2009. Technical Note: Animal-borne CTD-satellite relay data loggers for real-time oceanographic data collection. *Ocean Science* 5:685–695, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-5-685-2009.

Charrassin, J.-B., M. Hindell, S.R. Rintoul, F. Rouquet, S. Sokolov, M. Biuw, D. Costa, L. Boehme, P. Lovell, R. Coleman, and others. 2008. Southern Ocean frontal structure and sea-ice formation rates revealed by elephant seals. *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America* 105:11,634–11,639, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0800790105.

Costa, D.P., L.A. Huckstadt, D.E. Crocker, B.I. McDonald, M.E. Goebel, and M.A. Fedak. 2010. Approaches to studying climatic change and its role on the habitat selection of Antarctic pinnipeds. *Integrative and Comparative Biology* 50:1,018–1,030, https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icq054.

Fedak, M.A. 2004. Marine animals as platforms for oceanographic sampling: A "win/win" situation for biology and operational oceanography. *Memoirs of the National Institute of Polar Research* 58:133–147.

Fedak, M.A. 2013. The impact of animal platforms on polar ocean observation. *Deep Sea Research Part II* 88–89:7–13, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr2.2012.07.007.

Hussey, N.E., S.T. Kessel, K. Aarestrup, S.J. Cooke, P.D. Cowley, A.T. Fisk, R.G. Harcourt, K.N. Holland, S.J. Iverson, J.F. Kocik, and others. 2015. Aquatic animal telemetry: A panoramic window into the underwater world. *Science* 348:1255642, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1255642.

Lowther, A.D., C. Lydersen, M.A. Fedak, P. Lovell, and K.M. Kovacs. 2015. The Argos-CLS Kalman Filter: Error structures and state-space modelling relative to Fastloc GPS Data. *PLoS ONE* 10(4):e0124754, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0124754.

Roquet, F., G. Williams, M.A. Hindell, R. Harcourt, C. McMahon, C. Guinet, J.-B. Charrassin, G. Reverdin, L. Boehme, P. Lovell, and M. Fedak. 2014. A Southern Indian Ocean database of hydrographic profiles obtained with instrumented elephant seals. *Nature Scientific Data* 1:140028, https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2014.28.

Treasure, A.M., F. Roquet, I.J. Ansorge, M.N. Bester, L. Boehme, H. Bornemann, J.-B. Charrassin, D. Chevallier, D.P. Costa, M.A. Fedak, and others. 2017. Marine Mammals Exploring the Oceans Pole to Pole: A review of the MEOP consortium. *Oceanography* 30(2):132–138, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2017.234.

## AUTHORS

Fabien Roquet (roquet@misu.su.se) is Research Scientist, Department of Meteorology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden. **Lars Boehme** is Assistant Professor and **Mike A. Fedak** is Professor, both at the Sea Mammal Research Unit, University of St Andrews, Fife, Scotland, UK. **Barbara Block** is Professor, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, Pacific Grove, CA, USA. **Jean-Benoit Charrassin** is Professor, LOCEAN, Sorbonne University, Paris, France. **Daniel Costa** is Professor and **Luis A. Hückstädt** is Postdoctoral Researcher, both at the University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA. **Christophe Guinet** is Senior Research Associate, CEBC, Université de La Rochelle/CNRS, France. **Robert G. Harcourt** is Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. **Mark A. Hindell** is Professor, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. **Clive R. McMahon** is Research Fellow, Sydney Institute of Marine Science, Mosman, New South Wales, Australia. **Bill Woodward** is Researcher at NOAA/IOOS, Silver Spring, MD, USA.

## ARTICLE CITATION

Roquet, F., L. Boehme, B. Block, J.-B. Charrassin, D. Costa, C. Guinet, R.G. Harcourt, M.A. Hindell, L.A. Hückstädt, C.R. McMahon, B. Woodward, and M.A. Fedak. 2017. Ocean observations using tagged animals. *Oceanography* 30(2):139, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2017.235.