Biologging: Animals are recording human impact on the ocean

Biologging sensors attached to animals help researchers collect valuable data about marine environments. This data helps monitor human activities, such as fishing, pollution, and noise disturbances from boats and construction, providing insights into their impact on marine life.

A recent study from Kobe University highlights the importance of integrating data from different sources to create an “Internet of Animals” with open-access standards.

Human activities affect marine life in multiple ways. Fishing, industrial waste, and underwater construction alter habitats and disrupt ecosystems.

“There is a wealth of oceanographic data from research vessels, drifting buoys and satellites,“ said Professor IWATA Takashi, an animal ecologist at Kobe University.

“But due to technological and economic constraints, there are many observation gaps and some areas are inaccessible to humans, such as under sea ice or during harsh weather.”

Understanding how these changes impact individual animals is difficult, making it challenging to design effective conservation strategies.

Biologging: Window into animal experiences

Attaching small sensors, cameras, or tracking devices to wild animals is known as biologging. Scientists originally used biologging to study animal behavior and movement patterns. Now, it also helps analyze environmental changes affecting marine life.

“We try to minimize the impact this has on the animals by keeping the overall weight of the devices to less than 3% of the animal’s body weight, or even less than 1% for larger animals, and many researchers keep developing smaller and smaller devices,“ explained Iwata.

This method allows researchers to gather data without disturbing natural behaviors.

Biologging follows a Lagrangian observational method, meaning it moves with the animals, offering insights that fixed observation platforms like satellites or buoys cannot provide. It records a variety of environmental parameters, including temperature, salinity, and oxygen levels.

Advancements in biologging research

The researchers reviewed the latest advancements in biologging. Their analysis showed that biologging has improved typhoon forecasts, revealed differences in how turtle species react to plastic waste, exposed illegal fishing, and influenced the design of bird-friendly offshore wind farms.

“This review showed that while biologging alone is insufficient, it can fill in the gaps in existing knowledge,” said Iwata.

“It provides a new type of data that differs from the wide-area environmental information obtained from earth observation satellites and other sources to tackle a broad range of environmental issues.”

Combining biologging with other research methods offers a more complete understanding of marine ecosystems.

Tackling ocean warming and pollution

Biologging offers a crucial tool for tracking ocean warming. By attaching GPS loggers to seabirds and marine mammals, scientists can measure ocean currents, wind patterns, and temperature changes over time. These observations have helped improve climate models and typhoon tracking.

Plastic pollution remains a major concern, especially its impact on marine life. Cameras attached to sea turtles have captured floating plastic bags, providing direct evidence of pollution in marine habitats.

Loggerhead turtles swim past plastic, while green turtles sometimes mistake it for food. Such species-specific behaviors help shape targeted conservation strategies.

Chemical pollution also threatens marine ecosystems. Persistent organic pollutants accumulate in seabirds and marine mammals, serving as bio-indicators of contamination. Tracking these animals allows scientists to monitor pollution levels across different ocean regions.

Challenges in fishery management

Overfishing and bycatch pose significant threats to marine biodiversity. Biologging helps identify migration routes and breeding grounds for fish species like tuna and cod. This information supports more sustainable fishing policies.

Additionally, biologging has revealed that some marine animals, such as seals and whales, actively seek out fishing vessels to feed on discarded fish. This behavior increases the risk of entanglement and vessel collisions.

Understanding these interactions can help develop better deterrent strategies.

Conservation and marine protected areas

Noise pollution from shipping and offshore wind farms disrupts marine animals, particularly cetaceans that rely on echolocation.

Biologging has demonstrated that naval sonar and shipping noise affect whale behavior, influencing feeding and migration patterns. Some studies have proposed raising turbine heights to minimize risks for seabirds.

Biologging also plays a key role in marine protected area (MPA) management. Data collected from tagged predators such as sharks and seals help determine whether existing MPAs effectively cover important habitats.

Studies in the Ross Sea and British Indian Ocean Territory have confirmed that MPAs contribute to the conservation of top marine predators.

A global “Internet of Animals”

The full potential of biologging depends on worldwide cooperation.

“The full potential of biologging can only be realized through increased global collaboration and data sharing, enabling the integration of data across species, regions, and environmental contexts,” noted Iwata.

The researchers propose creating an “Internet of Animals,” where experts worldwide share biologging data to study marine life on a larger scale.

However, global data access and standardization remain major challenges. The Japanese research team calls for greater collaboration among scientists and data-sharing platforms to overcome these barriers.

Expanding biologging’s reach

Iwata hopes this research will encourage more scientists to explore biologging.

“If we can promote the sharing of biologging data through this paper, I hope to not only recruit more researchers to this field but also to so open up new angles that we haven’t yet envisioned,” he said.

“Researchers are not experts in social implementation, but in recent years, I have seen various issues being solved by sharing data in a data-driven society. It was an enjoyable task to think of ways to return the power of data to society.”

This study was conducted in collaboration with a researcher from Waseda University. By promoting biologging and data-sharing, researchers hope to build a stronger foundation for marine conservation efforts.

The study is published in the journal Water Biology and Security.

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