Ocean Tracking Network Canada: A Network Approach to Addressing Critical Issues in Fisheries and Resource Management with Implications for Ocean Governance

Abstract

The Ocean Tracking Network (OTN) Canada is an integrative seven‐year research program initiated in 2010 with academic, government, and industry partners. The team makes use of novel biotelemetry (primarily acoustic telemetry curtains), biologging, and oceanographic technologies to better understand changing ocean dynamics and their impact on ocean ecosystems, animal movements, and ecology and the dynamics of marine animal populations, many of which are commercially important. The network is organized around three ocean arenas (i.e., the Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific) where specific research projects will occur. However, all projects will contribute toward addressing a single unifying nationalscale question—what are the movements of continental shelf marine animals, how do these movements affect species interactions, and what are the consequences of environmental variability/change and human activities on these species’ distributions and abundance? Taxa that will be tracked include diadromous (e.g., salmon, eels, sturgeon) and marine (e.g., sharks, capelin, cod) fishes and a variety of marine mammals (e.g., grey seals, killer whales). Some of the common activities that occur in all arenas include measurements of oceanographic characteristics and variability at various spatial and temporal scales, movements of key species at several trophic levels, and use of key acoustic “bioprobes” (animals that carry tags that record locations visited, ocean conditions, and interactions with other tagged animals) and “roboprobes” (remotely controlled autonomous vehicles such as gliders that measure physical, biological, and chemical conditions) to complement measurements from fixed OTN acoustic telemetry curtains. Ultimately, scientific information generated will inform resource management, help formulate new socioeconomic policies, and provide some impetus to the reformulation of governance practices and legal standards.

Proximity loggers on amphibious mammals: a new method to study social relations in their terrestrial habitat

“…We adapted the system to investigate social relations of amphibious mammals during the time spent ashore. While transceiver systems based on underwater acoustic tags have been ap plied to investigate interactions in the marine environment (Cooke et al 2011, Lidgard et al 2012, Hayes et al 2013, this is the first study to test the suitability of proximity loggers to examine social be haviour of amphibious mammals in their terrestrial habitat.…”

A Census of Fishes and Everything They Eat: How the Census of Marine Life Advanced Fisheries Science

“…The POST and TOPP tagging projects hint at the possibility of using tags to study species interactions on a larger scale in the future, in part by using large-bodied species to monitor small species (Cooke et al 2011). Another census project recently pioneered a new use of waveguide sonar technology that made it possible to instantaneously visualize all of the fish in an area 250 miles on a side.…”

“…Tag technologies now allow researchers to monitor movement and distribution of animals at sea and simultaneously sample the physical properties of the water column Fisheries • Vol 37 No 9• September 2012• www.fisheries.org (Costa et al 2010). Tags have been used to provide information on stock structure that has proven important to management (Block et al 2005) and to record animal interactions (see Cooke et al 2011). Future technological developments may make it possible for ecological information from numerous organisms to be brought to shore by a few individuals (Stokesbury et al 2009), generating biological economies of scale.…”

“…The census made significant contributions in relation to (1) poorly explored habitats; (2) baseline (historical, pre-fishery) abundances of populations; (3) the distributions and movements of marine species and the forces that drive those patterns; (4) abundances, distribution, and biology of species not targeted by fisheries; (5) species interactions; (6) how species respond to multiple impacts (e.g., how distributions, migration timing, and available habitat may shift in response to climate and thereby change an ecosystem's vulnerability to human exploitation; Cooke et al 2011); and (7) how to manage multiple human activities that affect species and ecosystems simultaneously at many scales.…”

Untitled

“…In a large Canadian research program, acoustic receiver curtains are deployed in ocean ecosystems in combination with use of oceanographic technologies, aiming to better understand changing ocean dynamics and their impact on animal movements (Cooke et al, 2011b). Within this program, specific projects occur in the Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific, and fishes of different species and other aquatic animals are tracked at each of the study sites (Cooke et al, 2011b).…”