A New Miniaturized Acoustic Transmitter for Marine Animal Tracking

Most marine renewable energy (MRE) technologies are still in their infancy. Many uncertainties remain regarding MRE systems' impacts on the marine environment and species where they are deployed, which is one of the major hurdles for these systems to be widely adopted at a commercial scale. Currently, the primary technologies to monitor marine animals' behavior around existing or potential MRE deployment sites are optical and acoustic imaging. However, these methods cannot identify individual animals and thus are less useful in identifying protected species and studying their behavior. Implantable acoustic transmitters with unique identification codes could serve as a complementary technology. To minimize potential bias introduced to the study results, the implanted transmitters must be sufficiently small and light to not affect the animals' behavior while still having acceptable signal strengths and service life. Recently, we developed a new miniaturized acoustic transmitter that offers a significantly improved signal strength and service life (140 days [projected value] at a 5-s transmission interval) in a smaller and lighter package (0.45 g in the air), compared to the existing technologies. The detection range and detection efficiency of the new transmitter were tested in an actual marine environment and demonstrated a detection range of up to 330 m, a 65% improvement over the existing commercial counterparts operating at similar frequencies. Here, we report the design principles, performance, and manufacturing procedure of the transmitter. Theoretical estimates of the detection range, the actual range, and detection efficiency results from the field testing are presented.

Automated summary

Most marine renewable energy (MRE) technologies are still in their infancy and face uncertainties in terms of their impacts on the marine environment and species. Current monitoring technologies for marine animals' behavior have limitations in identifying and studying individual animals. A new miniaturized acoustic transmitter has been developed with improved signal strength and service life, as well as increased detection range. Evaluation of the transmitter's performance and field testing results are presented.