STARTED in 2005
234 researchers
85 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 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 (MATOS). Data and metadata are submitted through MATOS and securely archived in standard formats on ACT_MATOS, an OTN-compatible node. Receiver detections are matched to the tag owner among all regional databases that are OTN compatible nodes, which include the FACT node to the south and the OTN node to the north. These partnerships make exchanging information about tags simple and straightforward. In addition, they standardize the data so that they are downloaded in analysis-ready formats. Core support for ACT is provided by IOOS, with additional financial and in-kind support from network members and partners. The ACT network is headquartered at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.
For more information about the ACT Network or to find out how to become a member, please contact [email protected]