Tagging of Pacific Predators

Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP) began in 2000 as one of many projects formed by Census of Marine Life, an organization whose goal is to help understand and explain the diversity and abundances of the ocean in the past, present, and future. After they were formed, TOPP began by building a coalition of researchers from all over the world to find and study predators of the Pacific Ocean. Since then, they have satellite-tagged 22 different species and more than 2,000 animals. These animals include elephant seals, great white sharks, leatherback turtles, squid, albatrosses, and more.

Through the efforts of TOPP, information never before accessed by humans was now available, such as migration routes and ecosystems, but from the animals', rather than human, aspects. It also became possible to learn about the ocean itself through use of the animals, because they can go where humans cannot. We learn through their everyday actions, and through these data, researchers have been able to determine better ways of protecting endangered species, such as the leatherback turtle.

In addition to the NOAA’s Pacific Fisheries Ecosystems Lab, Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Lab, and University of California, Santa Cruz’s Long Marine Laboratory, a wide range of people contribute to the success of the program, including marine biologists, oceanographers, engineers, computer programmers, journalists, graphic designers, educators and the public who provide support.

Many different types of tags are used in the TOPP tagging program, each designed for different marine animals and different types of data. Archival tags, though small, are very powerful, and can last up to 10 years. Researchers surgically implant them into the bellies of tuna, where the tags record, as often as every few seconds, pressure (for depth of dives), ambient light (to estimate location), internal and external body temperature, and, in some cases, speed of travel. The tags are small and light enough to be attached to the outside of an animal, such as the tail feathers of red-footed boobies. However, they do have a drawback, they have to be retrieved. So, they are useful for fish likely to be caught as seafood, such as bluefin or yellowfin tuna, or animals that return to rookeries or nesting beaches, such as boobies and leatherback turtles.

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Wikipedia