Marine life gets in on the fun of being tracked

Technology is amazing.

Marine biologists, using lightweight, miniaturized electronic tags and satellite telemetry, can track the movements of a single fish, from birth to maturity, over vast expanses of ocean. Because the tagging devices are getting so sophisticated and durable, it’s now possible to scale up the research to gain an unprecedented global view of the movements of any number of critical marine species. Sara Iverson, a professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, said the technology enhances the ability of researchers to "predict and plan in the face of climate change and human influence."

Or course, such data collection of a species’ movements is not unprecedented. Geolocation apps like Google Maps have been tracking us, through the GPS chip in our smartphones.