Toward a National Animal Telemetry Observing Network (ATN) for our Oceans, Coasts and Great Lakes

Hassan Moustahfid, NOAA/U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (Lead Author), hassan.moustahfid@noaa.gov (Presenter)
Churchill Grimes, NOAA/NMFS, Southwest Fisheries Science Center, Fisheries Ecology Division, churchill.grimes@noaa.gov
John Kocik, NOAA/NMFS, Northeast Fisheries Science Center, Maine Field Station, john.kocik@noaa.gov
Barbara Block, Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, bblock@stanford.edu
Kim Holland, Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawaii, kholland@hawaii.edu
John Payne, University of Washington, jcpayne@uw.edu
Dewayne Fox, University of Delaware, dfox@desu.edu
Andrew Seitz, University of Alaska Fairbanks, aseitz@sfos.uaf.edu
Charles Alexander, NOAA/U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System, charles.alexander@noaa.gov

This an Executive Summary of Workshop report not a scientific Abstract.

The new National Ocean Policy (NOP) calls for strengthening our capacity to observe the nation’s oceans, coastal waters and Great Lakes. The U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (U.S. IOOS), a NOAA-led national partnership, is providing a framework for the integration of ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes observing capabilities.

The development of the ocean observing system began with an effort to integrate physical and chemical data on the oceans, and currently an important near-term goal of IOOS is to increase the amount of biological data in the observing system. One valuable addition to the existing US ocean observing capabilities is animal telemetry observations. Animals are often sensitive indicators of environmental trends, and a wide variety of federal, state, tribal, academic and private organizations routinely collect animal telemetry data. Until now, telemetry data have mostly been used in a research context, but in recent years the scale of telemetry activities has greatly increased, and there are now a number of self-organized regional networks making concerted efforts to make these data into an operational part of the ocean observing system. Inclusion of biological resources will provide a science-based source of information critical to advancing most of the National Ocean Policy priority objectives, particularly Ecosystem-Based Management and Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning.

With the goal of establishing a sustainable U.S. Animal Telemetry Observing Network (ATN) and linking observations from this network to the National Ocean Observing System, U.S. IOOS and the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center convened a two-day workshop in March 2011. Through plenary and breakout sessions, workshop participants identified major challenges, opportunities, and “customers” for animal telemetry data. Workshop participants also generated recommendations for implementing an ATN (listed below) and identified potential roles for U.S. IOOS to coordinate the integration of animal telemetry observations into the U.S. IOOS.

The group consensus was that an observing system that monitors animals on a range of temporal and spatial scales will yield both short and long-term benefits, fill knowledge gaps and advance many of the NOP Priority Objectives identified by the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force (OPTF).

Recommendations

1. Make animal telemetry data and products available to advance National Ocean Policy Priority Objectives.

2. Improve data standards, management, and sharing capability.

3. Collaborate more closely with industry on tag identification coding management, and manufacturing standards.

4. Promote development of new animal telemetry technology.

5. Bring permanence and sustainability to a national network of assets used for biological monitoring.

6. Document and coordinate priority deployment of animal telemetry assets.

7. Expand animal telemetry outreach and education programs.

8. Plan and execute a collaborative project to demonstrate the utility of the ATN to the fisheries and habitat management communities.

Presentation Type:  Poster

Session:  Other   (Wed 10:00 AM)

Associated Project(s): 

• Halpin, Pat: Integrating Ocean Observing Data to Enhance Protected Species Spatial Decision Support Systems ...details
• Related Activity

Poster Location ID: 297