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Tracking Fish

Scientists who want to find out more about how climate change is affecting our planet have found a new way to track data – by using underwater acoustic sound waves.

The Ocean Tracking Network is an ambitious, international project that uses underwater acoustic receivers and tiny acoustic tags implanted into fish and other marine life to track their movements and record data about the ocean itself. This worldwide network, involving about a dozen countries, will give scientists data they’ve never had before, about where fish and marine life travel over the course of their lifetimes, how they mingle with other populations and what’s happening to their habitats.

In the process, researchers expect to learn more about how climate change is affecting our oceans and the numerous species that depend upon them for survival. Fish, birds, polar bears – even humans – require stable oceanic life for continued survival.

The Network is based at Dalhousie University in Canada. It’s part of a 10-year project known as the Census of Marine Life that will inventory sea life in 14 ocean regions around the globe. The researchers hope this data will enable them to better protect fish populations when setting shipping routes and designating marine protected areas, as well as learn more about how the world’s oceans are changing and what we can do to protect them.

For more information about this project, visit http://www.oceantrackingnetwork.org/.

To read more about this and other environmental health issues, go to: www.environmentalhealthnews.org, www.ourstolenfuture.org, or www.healthandenvironment.org