This project would advance the state of technology with respect to surface-attached satellite telemetry tags for cetaceans

This Cooperative Agreement award, funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) under the Unallied Science Program (CFDA 11.472), aims to advance the state of telemetry tag technology for monitoring North Atlantic right whales (NARW). The $679,552 project, with a period of performance from August 1, 2024 to July 31, 2027, will focus on developing a new bioinspired adhesive mounting tag platform to enable longer-duration attachment of telemetry sensors on cetaceans. Key objectives include exploring advanced materials to enhance the viscoelastic response and attachment strength, incorporating low-power pressure sensors and pumps to maintain suction, and designing custom sensor housings. This research is expected to provide the scientific community with an improved non-implantable telemetry option for gathering individual movement and behavior data on NARWs, potentially filling critical data gaps on their distribution and movements.

The current technology for suction cup tags for cetaceans typically provides attachment durations of less than 24H, which limits the ability to collect medium-to-long term data on movements and distributions of narw. The primary goal for this project is to utilize the custom remora adhesive device (RAD) mounting base (developed at the NJ institute of technology) to produce a low-drag, releasable telemetry unit that can be customized to house a variety of sensor packages, with significantly greater attachment duration. This project will build on current research of the adhesive biomechanics of remoras, to produce a new, bioinspired adhesive mounting tag platform. Specifically, this project will 1) explore materials used in the tag attachment to increase the viscoelastic response and attachment strength; 2) assess the incorporation of a low-power pressure sensor and pump to the tag design to reduce loss of suction; 3) design and build a custom housing to fit the sensor packages required by nmfs, with subsequent laboratory and field testing. This effort would have broad impacts on narw science and management, potentially providing a new external biotelemery tag option with greater attachment duration than currently available options. Outputs from this research could assist the research community by providing an additional non-implantable telemetry option for gathering individual movement and behavior data, which may ultimately be useful to fill data gaps regarding the distribution and movements of narws.