Global radionavigation and location systems for tracking marine mammals

Abstract

Over the past decade the Argos System has become a widely used tool for animal tracking. This paper investigates whether lower costs and energy requirements could be achieved by alternative techniques. These include the global radionavigation systems GPS and Omega which employ low-powered receivers rather than the high-powered transmitters of Argos. A variety of systems are studied and their costs and energy requirements modelled within specific marine mammal tracking scenarios. This paper presents a fundamental analysis exploring current and future options available to researchers who need to track marine mammals.