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REVEALING THE SECRETS OF THE SEA
Nancy Edwards discusses how VEMCO is helping scientists around the world answer pressing environmental questions
When Dr. Fred Whoriskey set out to study Atlantic salmon migration on the East Coast of North America using equipment developed by Halifax-based VEMCO, he made some surprising discoveries. “Not only do juvenile Atlantic salmon migrate along specific pathways in the Gulf of St. Lawrence area of the Atlantic, but they also seem to wait for each other and travel north together during the same period each year,” says Whoriskey, the Executive Director of the Ocean Tracking Network (OTN) at Dalhousie University in Halifax. “There is also some evidence that the older salmon that have made the ocean migration before are showing the younger ones where to go. This is absolutely fascinating to us.”
So why does that information matter? Sandra Greer can explain its importance; she’s the President and CEO of VEMCO, which manufactures underwater acoustic telemetry transmitters and receivers. “Understanding where and when aquatic animals congregate and their migration patterns could enable fisheries managers to set conservation and fisheries-management policies,” she says. In turn, this will lead to more environmentally sustainable practices. “Aquatic animals are sensitive indicators of environmental trends. What better than for the animals themselves to give us clues about how we can help maintain a proper and balanced environment for them to thrive.”
There are questions that need to be answered: What effect does global warming have on sea life? What impact does ocean exploration have on its inhabitants? VEMCO’s acoustic telemetry equipment provides scientists with the means to answer these and other pressing questions about our marine and freshwater environments. In fact, VEMCO’s coded transmitters and acoustic receivers are used by marine biologists and fish researchers in more than 50 countries to conduct studies on a broad range of species in both marine and freshwater environments.
Here’s how it works: Coded transmitters containing a unique ID are
carried by fish. At pre-programmed intervals, the tag will emit a ping sound, which is heard and recorded by acoustic receivers that have been deployed in listening lines and arrays. The data received can pinpoint the movement of each fish that has been tagged. Along with migration and behavioural data, transmitters can be equipped with sensors that can measure temperature, depth and acceleration. Researchers can also use VEMCO equipment to conduct fine-scale positioning studies.
Pacific salmon smolts, for example, have been tracked from the Sacramento River in California to British Columbia and Alaska. On the US East Coast, another study reveals sturgeon leaving the Delaware River, then travelling up the Eastern seaboard, around Nova Scotia, into the mouth of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, and back. In yet another study, researchers discovered that many great white sharks take an incredible return journey from the coast of South Africa to Western Australia.
The technology being used to track these movements comes from vast arrays of deployed VEMCO receivers. Using VEMCO technology, scientists can collaborate with one another by leveraging each other’s networks and sharing valuable data. As for Whoriskey and his OTN team and partners, they’re learning more and more about the ocean’s inhabitants every day, thanks to VEMCO acoustic telemetry technology. The OTN is one of a number of other large acoustic telemetry networks that have cropped up around the world and include the Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking Project, the California Fish Tracking Consortium, the Atlantic Cooperative Telemetry Array, the Florida Atlantic Coast Telemetry Array, and the Australian Acoustic Tracking and Monitoring System.
“Our knowledge of many species of aquatic animals is increasing exponentially thanks to the vast amount of data we are now able to collect,” says Whoriskey. “None of this would be possible without VEMCO equipment.”
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