Subject: PARC FORUM - The Role of Digital Electronics in Providing a Window into the World of Top Marine Predators - September 21st - 4pm

From: Ana Arias <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 10:35:30 PDT

Open Forum
[email-masked]
PARC FORUM
Thursday, September  21st
4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Title:  The Role of Digital Electronics in Providing a Window into the 
World of Top Marine Predators

Daniel Costa, University of California, Santa Cruz

Abstract:
Electronic tags are providing new insights into the behavior of marine 
top predators. The Tagging of Pacific Pelagic (TOPP) is a 10-year 
program within the Census of Marine Life using electronic tagging 
technologies to document the movements and behaviors of marine predators 
in the North Pacific. The overarching goal is to advance electronic 
tagging technologies and scientific methods to meet the challenges of 
the 21st century for marine resource management and ocean modeling. 
TOPP's objectives include 1) developing new tags that measure physical 
and biological parameters, 2) employing tagged animals as oceanographic 
samplers to collect surface and subsurface data for global ocean 
databases, 3) developing the infrastructure for web-based distribution 
of tagging data, 4) collecting sufficient information on species 
movements and their preferred environments to develop models of 
abundance and distribution for management and conservation. To date, 40 
researchers from 78 countries have deployed over 2,000 tags on species 
ranging from albatross, to elephant seals, to bluefin tuna.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Daniel Costa is a Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the 
University of California at Santa Cruz. He completed his Ph.D. working 
with sea otters at UCSC in 1978 and then went to the Scripps Institution 
of Oceanography were he completed postdoctoral research. He returned to 
UCSC in 1983. His research focuses on physiological and ecological 
adaptations that enable mammals and birds to survive in the ocean. His 
research as taken him to the far reaches for the globe from the Arctic 
to the Antarctic, from Australia to the Galapagos. He was a chief 
scientist for the two winter cruises in the Western Antarctic Peninsula. 
He has been involved in the development of tagging and tracking 
technologies since 1978. As a scientific officer at the Office of Naval 
Research he initiated ONRs program on marine mammal biology and 
administered projects focusing on electronic tag development and 
satellite tracking methodologies. He is currently a co-principal 
investigator of TOPP (Tagging of Pacific Pelagics) a multidisciplinary 
program to tag and track 22 different species of apex pelagic predators 
in the North Pacific Ocean.

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