STARTED in 2005
234 researchers
92 species
global collaboration
What is acoustic telemetry?
Understanding movements of aquatic animals is essential for management and conservation. Acoustic telemetry is a technology that uses an acoustic transmitter and a receiver to track animal movements underwater. A transmitter (commonly referred to as a tag) is externally attached to or surgically inserted within an animal. These tags emit a series of pings (or sounds) at regular time intervals and as the tagged animal swims by a receiver, these pings are recorded as unique identification codes along with the date and time. The underwater receivers store this information until the receiver is retrieved from the water and data are downloaded. Receivers are deployed in groupings called arrays. Individual researchers manage one or more arrays to understand their project goals or support goals of the network. However, through cooperative networks such as the Atlantic Cooperative Telemetry (ACT) Network, detection data can be exchanged among projects and tagged animals can be tracked at continental scales.
The Atlantic Cooperative Telemetry Network brings together researchers from the northeastern and mid-Atlantic United States (Maine through North Carolina). ACT works with regional partners, the US Animal Telemetry Network (ATN), and the Ocean Tracking Network (OTN) to operationalize an ACT data portal. Data and metadata are submitted and securely stored in standardized formats on the data portal. The ACT Network is an OTN-compatible node, meaning receiver detections are matched to deployed transmitters among all OTN-compatible regional nodes including the OTN node to the north and the FACT and iTAG nodes to the south. Support for the ACT Network and the data portal is primarily provided by the US Animal Telemetry Network via the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS), the IOOS regional associations MARACOOS and NERACOOS, and in part by The Nature Conservancy. In addition, the ACT Network is grateful to the Ocean Tracking Network and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center for their continued support.
For more information about the ACT Network or to find out how to become a member, please contact east.coast.telemetry@gmail.com