Best practice recommendations for the use of external telemetry devices on pinnipeds

Abstract

Pinnipeds spend large portions of their lives at sea, submerged, or hauled-out on land, often on remote offshore islands. This fundamentally limits access by researchers to critical parts of pinniped life history and has spurred the development and implementation of a variety of externally attached telemetry devices (ETDs) to collect information about movement patterns, physiology and ecology of marine animals when they cannot be directly observed. ETDs are less invasive and easier to apply than implanted internal devices, making them more widely used. However, ETDs have limited retention times and their use may result in negative short-and long-term consequences including capture myopathy, impacts to energetics, behavior, and entanglement risk. We identify 15 best practice recommendations for the use of ETDs with pinnipeds that address experimental justification, animal capture, tag design, tag attachment, effects assessments, preparation, and reporting. Continued improvement of best practices is critical within the framework of the Three Rs (Reduction, Refinement, Replacement); these best practice recommendations provide current guidance to mitigate known potential negative outcomes for individuals and local populations. These recommendations were developed specifically for pinnipeds; however, they may also be applicable to studies of other marine taxa. We conclude with four desired future directions for the use of ETDs in technology development, validation studies, experimental designs and data sharing.

Assessing the post-release effects of capture, handling and placement of satellite telemetry devices on narwhal(Monodon monoceros)movement behaviour

“…Addressing questions such as migration timing and extent, however, will require more invasive ‘bolt-on’ tagging procedures unless alternative long-term attachment methods are developed ( Heide-Jørgensen et al , 2017 ). Opportunities to advance long-term attachment methods will require broader discussion among the scientific community and tag manufacturers that will likely lead to smaller design and more battery efficient tags (as discussed in Andrews et al , 2019 ; Horning et al , 2019 ). This will also require that tag manufacturers are willing to invest in research and development of new tags and attachment methods.…”

“…Many refinement frameworks also highlight the need to assess considerations on a species-specific level ( Hawkins, 2004 ) as well as across all aspects of experimental design for biologging studies ( Casper, 2009 ). As a result, several expert groups pooled collective knowledge from field activities, as well as previous work assessing the use and placement of telemetry devices, to create best practice recommendations for pinnipeds ( Horning et al , 2017b , 2019 ) and cetaceans ( Andrews et al , 2019 ). These best-practice recommendations provide an important framework moving forward and emphasize the need for data to examine how animal handling and the placement of telemetry devices potentially impact health, behaviour and survival of marine mammals.…”

Best practice for collar deployment of tri-axial accelerometers on a terrestrial quadruped to provide accurate measurement of body acceleration

“…Generally, devices are attached to the subject's body, as close to the centre of mass as possible, and aligned so that the direction of measured axes is aligned with the organism's anatomical axes [19]. Such measures are easier to apply when attaching devices directly to the animal's hair or feathers using tape or glue, as is the case, for example, when attaching logging devices to marine mammals [20][21][22]. However, many studies utilise collar-attached systems, most commonly for deployment on quadrupedal terrestrial mammals [8,23].…”

Inferring Variation in Southern Elephant Seal At-Sea Mortality by Modelling Tag Failure

“…Research using bespoke surgically implanted mortality tags (LHX) has revealed evidence of at-sea mortality (Horning and Mellish, 2014). However, this technique is not feasible in many situations, necessitating surgery in remote areas, and may in itself influence subsequent survival (Walker et al, 2009;Horning et al, 2019). By contrast, the approach undertaken here has no measurable effect on short-term seal health or long-term seal survival and is value adding to existing and ongoing long-term studies of seals and their environment (McMahon et al, 2008;Mazzaro and Dunn, 2009;Harcourt et al, 2019).…”