Lotek systems for tracking fish, birds & wildlife in salt water habitats

Monitoring Fish and Wildlife
in Marine Habitats

The tracking method of choice for most salt water research is acoustic telemetry and archival tagging. In certain cases, satellite and radio tracking technologies are also utilized for marine species. Lotek offers a full range of innovative tracking systems for both large and small marine species. Our acoustic transmitters, receivers, and archival tags can be used to gather many kinds of information on a wide range of species. In addition, we offer specialized solutions for tracking diadromous species as they move to and from fresh water and marine habitats.

Species

With Lotek's increasingly sophisticated tracking solutions, there are few limitations on the size or type of aquatic species that you can track. To give just a few examples, our systems can be used to monitor marine mammals, sharks, rays, pelagics, groundfish, and birds.

Options

As a researcher tracking marine species, you have a number of choices available to you. In a strictly salt water habitat, you can employ acoustic telemetry. For diadromous species, you can use tags that transmit both radio and acoustic signals depending upon whether they are in fresh or salt water. You can select whether to have these tags transmit radio or acoustic signals based either on selected time intervals or on defined conductivity thresholds. And if your study design does not lend itself to real-time telemetry, you may find that the use of archival (data storage) tags serves your research needs better.

Sample studies

Some recent examples of studies in which Lotek marine equipment has been utilized:

Understanding the response of Atlantic Salmon to redirected flows at the mouth of the Suldalslågen water system, Norway (profile in PDF format)
A behavioural study of released aquaculture steelhead trout in the Bay d'Espoir estuary, Newfoundland
High precision monitoring of juvenile Atlantic cod in Newman Sound, Newfoundland
Precise and accurate three dimensional positioning of Steelhead Trout in an aquaculture cage in Bay d'Espoir, Newfoundland
Supporting sound fisheries management by understanding cod and plaice migratory processes in the North Sea (profile in PDF format)
Dive profiling of Hawksbill turtles near Buck Island, U.S.V.I.

Juvenile hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) equipped with a turtle-adapted
coded radio transmitter (apex of carapace), data storage tag (left postmarginal scute)
and coded acoustic transmitter (right postmarginal scute, not visible in photo).
Photo © Mitch Sisak.

Obtainable Data

Among the types of information that you can obtain using our marine tracking systems are the following:

Positional data: precise information on the location, depth and movement of fish
Temperature data
Physiological data: including fish muscular activity and related metabolic costs
Mortality data
Geolocation data: light sensors that allow estimation of day length and time of local noon
Historical data: archival storage of more than 500,000 data samples for up to 25 years
3D mapping: accurate 3-dimensional spatial mapping of fish with accuracies to one meter

Types of research

Here are just a few examples of the types of research that you can do with Lotek's marine tracking systems:

Environmental assessments
Aquaculture research
Microhabitat utilization
Migration studies
Localization & positioning
Stock assessments
Dive profiling

Recommended Products

Acoustic telemetry solutions
MAP	The MAP 600 acoustic telemetry systems
Coded Acoustic Transmitters	The MAP series: coded acoustic transmitters for MAP systems Miniature MAP series: coded acoustic transmitters for MAP systems The CAFT Series: coded acoustic fisheries transmitters
Receivers / Dataloggers	The SRX 600: receiver/datalogger system The SRX 400: receiver/datalogger system Biotracker: wide band waterproof receiver The DRX 600: digital signal processing receiver
Hydrophones	The LHP Series: manual and datalogging hydrophones The WHS Series: wireless hydrophones The WHS 3000 series: Wireless Hydrophone System for use with MAP systems
Specialized telemetry solutions
Combined acoustic & radio transmitters	The CART Series: combined acoustic radio tag
Sensor Transmitters	Coded Sensor Transmitters
Archival solutions
Light, temperature and depth tags	Lotek Archival Tag (LAT) Series The LTD Series

How can we help?

Lotek offers a wide choice of telemetry, satellite and archival tracking options. If you are at all uncertain about which technology might best serve your study, we'd be glad to help you sort through the options to select the best system for your research needs.

In fact, the telemetry system design most suitable for a particular study is dependent upon a range of application-specific factors. We invite you to contact us for answers to your questions. Our application specialists will be happy to discuss individual tracking system requirements with you in detail, and assist you through all the stages of your project planning to ensure that your system design and data gathering capabilities are optimized for your study.

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Monitoring Fish and Wildlife in Marine Habitats

Monitoring Fish and Wildlife
in Marine Habitats