Advances in Telemetry: Opportunities and Challenges for Fisheries and Aquatic Ecology

Moderators: David Smith and Michael Millard
Emails: david_r_smith@usgs.gov and mike_millard@fws.gov

Date: Thursday, September 15, 2005
Time: 8:00 am to 5:40 pm
Location: Egan 14

Recent advances in technology have made it possible for fishery biologists and aquatic ecologists to study physiology, behavior, movement, migration, habitat use, and population parameters on spatial and temporal scales not previously available. Accompanying the advances are challenges in how best to apply the technology in aquatic environments, on sensitive organisms, and to draw inference from large amounts of data generated by telemetry systems. The objective of this symposium is to highlight and provide examples of the opportunities and challenges presented by the application of telemetry systems to fishery and aquatic ecology. Speakers, representing a diversity of backgrounds, will discuss state of telemetry technology, ecological questions that can be addressed by applying the technology, ethical handling and tagging, proper study design and implementation, and special approaches in data analysis. Case studies will illustrate applications of the latest technologies, to diverse species, and in a variety of ecosystems. The symposium will begin with a series of presentations that will provide an overview of how telemetry can help address important questions regarding physiology, population ecology, fishery science, and methods of handling and tagging. Next, representatives from major telemetry companies will present on the state-of-the-technology and related topics. The remainder of the session will focus on case studies, which will illustrate the application of state-of-the-technology telemetry systems to fishery and aquatic ecology.

Link to list of presentations in this symposium