A float-release package for recovering data-loggers from wild sharks

• Published in: Journal of experimental marine biology and ecology Vol. 475; pp. 49 - 53
• Main Authors: Whitmore, Benjamin M., White, Connor F., Gleiss, Adrian C., Whitney, Nicholas M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.02.2016
• Subjects: Accelerometer; Marine; Radio telemetry; Tag recovery; Teleostei; Accelerometer; Tag recovery; ADL; Radio telemetry; GTR; VHF
• ISSN: 0022-0981; 1879-1697
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jembe.2015.11.002

The rapidly expanding use of high-resolution data-loggers to study marine vertebrates presents a wealth of new opportunities for understanding the behavior, physiology, and ecology of these animals in situ. It also presents a number of new logistical challenges, one of the biggest of which is the need to physically recover the tag in order to acquire data, thus, a novel data-logger release and recovery package was designed and tested. This package consisted of a microsphere-resin float, very high frequency (VHF) transmitter, and galvanic timed release (GTR) device which allowed acceleration data logger (ADL) tags to remain on free-living sharks for several days before detaching from the fin. Upon release, tags floated to the surface and were located using a VHF receiver and yagi antenna. This method has been used successfully on blacktip, bull, nurse, and white sharks to produce an overall recovery rate of 95.7% on 47 deployments over periods of 1–111h and shark displacement distances up to 35km. This represents a cost-effective method for recovering data-loggers from sharks and large teleosts. •A data-logger release and recovery package was developed for free-living sharks.•The package had a recovery success of 95.7% across 47 deployments.•The package had successful deployments on blacktip, bull, nurse, and white sharks.•Deployment durations ranged from 1–111h.•The maximum shark displacement distance was 35km.