Tracking Marine Organisms
Tracking Marine Organisms
Posted October 17, 2013Voyager’s “fish and wildlife” category now includes a new “tracking” folder that allows users to plot or animate the motion of various marine organisms over time. So far our species list includes Hawaiian monk seals, loggerhead turtles, Galapagos sharks, and tiger sharks; and we hope to acquire additional data into the future. While the loggerhead turtles can be followed across the entire breadth of the Pacific Ocean, the seals and sharks were located in Hawaiian waters.
These tracks represent organisms who have been tagged with sensors so that their positions can be communicated via satellite (upon breaching the water’s surface) and intermittently tracked over time. This records the path of an individual over a certain time period and can provide insights about its habitat and behavior.
Voyager screenshot of Hawaiian monk seal RO12 (“Kermit”), March through August 2010 (click here for larger image):
Data were provided by NOAA’s Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) (seals and turtles) and the University of Hawaiʻi’s Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) (Galapagos and tiger sharks).
