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Marine mammals experts from the
Norwegian Polar Institute in collaboration with the
Institute for Marine Research have been busy deploying new
generation sensors on seals in both Arctic and Antarctic waters. The
research is done within the IPY project:
MEOP (Marine Mammal Exploration of the Oceans Pole to Pole).
Marine Mammal Exploring the Oceans Pole to Pole (MEOP) will deploy
state-of-the-art animal-borne CTD (Conductivity-Temperature-Depth) SRDLs
(Satellite-Relay Data Loggers) on strategically chosen, deep-diving
marine mammal species in both
Polar Regions
to explore their movement patterns, behaviour and habitat utilization.
Concomitant with the sampling of ecological data sets on these top
predators, the animals will themselves (via the equipment they carry)
collect a vast, high-precision oceanographic data set (e.g. water
temperature, salinity) from difficult to access areas at the fringes of
the Polar Seas that are strategically important to climate and ocean
modelling.
Co-operation between programmes within IPY will provide MEOP with
comprehensive, synoptic oceanographic coverage from traditional
ship-borne CTD units that will allow, for the first time ever at this
level, to quantify factors determining habitat selection by key polar
marine mammal species. The oceanographic data collected within MEOP
will, in turn, provide otherwise unobtainable oceanographic data sets
collected at natural hot-spots of productivity, as input data to
physically-oriented modelling projects (e.g. the Bipolar Atlantic
Thermohaline Circulation Programme). Ten countries are involved in the
research programme that will in combination have good synoptic ocean
coverage of the North Atlantic and almost the Circumpolar Antarctic Ocean.
MEOP Norway has recently completed its final deployments. Most recently
researchers spent a month (March/April) in the West Ice finding suitable
CTD-bearers. Twenty SRDLs are now successfully carried by hooded seals
in the Arctic, joining their 20 southern elephant seal “colleagues” from
Bouvetøya that have been busy reporting data from the Southern Ocean
since January/February.
Data is collected continuously while the seals swim and dive and is sent
via a satellite link (ARGOS)
when they surface to breathe or come ashore or up onto ice to rest. NPI
in Tromsø receives the data in near-real-time.The SRDLs weigh about 400
g, and have negligable impact on the seals. They represent a maximum of
2% of the body weight of the animal carry them – which range in size
from 30 kg – 1.5 tonnes.
The idea of attaching satellite tags to seals to monitor their behaviour
is not new. However, this time the sensors are more advanced and they
collect more data that is much more precise.
The seals collect and send data 24/7, often from areas not easily
reached by research vessels. Both species chosen for deployments in MEOP-
Norway travel broadly, and dive to depths in excess of 1000 m. Therefore
the data sets collected by them are extremely unique and valuable for
both biologists and oceanographers.
(Source: Kit Kovacs, NPI)
Read also:
MEOP-Norway Project Summary;
Nordlys news item - in Norwegian)
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