NOAA researchers will be testing a new way to track tagged fish and collect data on the marine environment this spring in Juneau.
They plan to launch an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to learn how useful it would be for future studies on the movements of fish in salt water.
Researchers can program the torpedo-shaped AUV to cruise silently underwater, detecting and recording fish tagged with acoustic tags that use low-frequency sounds. Other sensors on the vehicle collect environmental data, including current speeds, water temperature, salinity, oxygen concentrations, and chlorophyll levels, while a side-scan sonar records images of the ocean floor.
The AUV can operate independently for over 12 hours, travelling at varying depths along a pre-programmed path, surfacing periodically to check and correct its position using GPS.
The upcoming project is a partnership between NOAA, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
Researchers will tag twenty fish with acoustic tags to provide ‘moving targets' for the AUV. They will also put tags on stationary buoys to provide targets at known locations and depths. The tags will also be tracked from boats to compare the AUV results with more traditional survey methods.
