In order to protect aquatic species, we first need to understand them. And to understand them, we need to know where and when they go. This is what the European Tracking Network (ETN) – a network of scientists, knowledge and equipment – is doing using telemetry. ETN has made a beautiful and informative short film about their work, Where the Wild Things Go.
Human activity and changes in our climate have a huge impact on life below the surface – in our marine and fresh water habitats – but how are these changes affecting the creatures that live in the oceans? Answers to this question are what the European Tracking Network is pursuing at a pan-European scale.
The European Tracking Network is a group of nearly 400 scientists from 33 countries across Europe. The scientists have joined forces to use tracking technology to monitor the movements and migrations of fish and other aquatic animals to improve the understanding, protection, and management of aquatic animals and habitats.
Now, the network has produced a short film about their work with underwater animal tracking. The film takes you deep below the surface, in the beautiful world of life underwater.
Watch the videoWhere the Wild Things Go
How is it that monitoring the movements and migrations of fish and aquatic animals can help us protect life underwater better?
“To really assess the needs of aquatic animals and the threats they face, we need information about the habitats they rely upon, the migration routes they use, or where they spawn. How we get this information, is using telemetry,” says Post Doc at DTU Aqua Kim Birnie-Gauvin.
Telemetry – listening to life underwater
The network is not just a network of scientists, it is also a physical network of acoustic devices deployed underwater. The acoustic devices listen and record tagged animals passing by.
The advanced technology, telemetry, have been developed over the past decades, and is a suite of electronic tracking devices that can remotely monitor species. The scientists’ mission is to track aquatic animals across Europe to better understand, protect and manage them. Thus finally, to know how to balance ecology and economy.
The data that inform scientists about when, where and why animals move and migrate, and the habitats they depend upon, including the temperatures they utilise, and the depths they dive to.
A life cycle yet almost unknown
One story from the video is about bluefin tuna. A few decades ago, bluefins were overfished to a degree where they disappeared from Scandinavian waters where it had, in earlier years, been abundant. In recent years, after improved management, the tuna now seems to have returned to the North Sea.
Through the tagging programs, scientists are trying to understand why it has returned:
“The tuna disappeared in the 1960’s and we haven’t seen them here until a few years ago,” says Professor at DTU Aqua Kim Aarestrup who is in charge of the tuna tagging programme that started in 2017. Kim Aarestrup elaborates:
“With the tagging programme, we want to know where they go, feed and spawn. We want to understand the tuna’s behaviour and survival to avoid another collapse of the population.”
Another story of a mysterious fish is the lumpfish. It is harvested because of its roe and therefore the fishery is harvests the females only.
“We don’t know where they are or what they do for most of their lifecycle. Because our knowledge about the lumpfish is so limited, it is quite difficult to determine whether the fishery is sustainable,” says Kim Birnie-Gauvin.
Watch Kim and Kim tell us about the return of tuna to Scandinavian waters and its related tagging project, and about the tagging of lumpfish, whose life cycle is yet almost unknown.
Learn more about the tracking network
Photo at the top: Screenshot from the video