Toward a National Animal Telemetry Observing Network (ATN) for Our Oceans, Coasts and Great Lakes: Workshop Synthesis Report

摘要

The development of the ocean observing system began with an effort to integrate physical and chemical data on the oceans, and currently an important near-term goal of IOOS is to increase the amount of biological data in the observing system. One valuable addition to the existing US ocean observing capabilities is animal telemetry observations. Animals are often sensitive indicators of environmental trends, and a wide variety of federal, state, tribal, academic and private organizations routinely collect animal telemetry data. Until now, telemetry data have mostly been used in a research context, but in recent years the scale of telemetry activities has greatly increased, and there are now a number of selforganized regional networks making concerted efforts to make these data into an operational part of the ocean observing system. Inclusion of biological resources will provide a science-based source of information critical to advancing most of the National Ocean Policy priority objectives, particularly Ecosystem-Based Management and Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning.