Genesis and evolution of bio-logging devices: l963-2002

• Main Author: Gerald L. Kooyman
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Scholander Hall, 0204, Scripps Institution of Oceanography 2004
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Weddell; Antarc*; Memoirs of National Institute of Polar Research; Polar Research; Weddell Seals; Callorhinus ursinus; Northern fur seal
• Online Access: https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=2476; http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00002476/; https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=2476&item_no=1&attribute_id=18&file_no=1

Bio-logging devices have become an integral part of many studies on the behavior, physiology and ecology of marine vertebrates. In the beginning, 1963, a time depth recorder (TDR) was designed to measure time and depth of freely diving Weddell seals, Leptonychotes weddellii, in the Antarctic. This was the first device used to obtain detailed information on underwater activity of an aquatic animal. It recorded data for one hour. Since that time there has been a steady evolution of this type of recorder. In 1975 a revised TDR with an extended time base of 14 days recorded the diving activity of the northern fur seal, Callorhinus ursinus. Through the rest of the 1970's and 1980's other fur seal species, as well as Weddell seals, and leather back sea turtles were studied, and the inventive pace of the TDR quickened. In 1981 an elegant mechanical recorder that lasted for three months was deployed. The emergence of microprocessors in the 1980's made possible further miniaturization and the logging of several additional variables. The next revolution occurred in the 1990's with the inception of satellite transmitters that made it possible to determine precisely where an animal was on the planet, and to retrieve other data as well. This remarkable ability to incorporate the measurement of spatial distribution was soon augmented by a third revolution, the use of mountable videocameras or camcorders on the animals themselves. With this arsenal of bio-logging devices many questions about aquatic animals are being resolved that were only dreams for the first generation of biologists studying the marine activities of vertebrates.