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Conference 7.286::space

Title:	Space Exploration
Notice:	Shuttle launch schedules, see Note 6
Moderator:	PRAGMA::GRIFFIN

Created:	Mon Feb 17 1986
Last Modified:	Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	974
Total number of notes:	18843

85.0. "Wildlife Satellite Tracking" by PYRITE::WEAVER () Thu Sep 19 1985 00:20

Associated Press Wed 18-SEP-1985 12:28                     Satellite-Wildlife

           Satellites Help Scientists Spy On Wildlife
                        By DAVID FOSTER
                    Associated Press Writer
   ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - When caribou No. 5871 beds down for a
nap on the tundra, researcher Larry Pank knows it, 400 miles away
in the comfort of his Fairbanks office.
   A fist-sized transmitter on the caribou's neck and a pair of
satellites 510 miles overhead chart the animal's every movement as
it migrates across northeastern Alaska.
   ``With some degree of reliability, we can tell if he's standing,
lying, running or walking,'' said Pank, a biologist with the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service. ``The amount of data you can collect
from this is amazing. It's sort of like standing at the back end of
an elephant. It overwhelms you.''
   By dialing up a computer, Pank can pin down the caribou's
location to within 1,600 feet. A thermometer in the transmitter
tells him approximate air temperature. A motion-sensing switch
detects how many times, and to what degree, the animal moves its
head each hour.
   Satellite tracking has enabled Pank and researchers worldwide to
study wildlife in ways never before possible. Not only can
satellites chart a gray whale's wanderings in the Pacific, they can
tell how often and deep it dives. They can follow African elephants
across hostile borders closed to biologists.
   Satellites also make routine tracking tasks safer and less
expensive. Biologists have long used radio telemetry to track
wildlife, but a radio transmitter's limited range forces
researchers into the field to collect data. That often means flying
over remote country, in all seasons and weather.
   ``They're going out in the worst environments to get data on
animals. In doing so, people get killed,'' said David Beaty, a
partner at Telonics Inc., which claims to be the world's largest
manufacturer of animal-tracking devices.
   ``Now they can sit back at their CRT (cathode ray tube) and
collect two to six position fixes a day, and we don't lose any
scientists,'' he added.
   Telonics, based in Mesa, Ariz., designs satellite transmitters
to fit animals around the world, including humpback whales off
Newfoundland, red deer in New Zealand, manatees in Florida, and
polar bears and musk oxen in Alaska.
   Satellite tracking is especially useful on Alaska's North Slope,
where researchers are hurrying to study the environmental impact of
oil and gas development.
   Since last spring, Pank and other scientists with the Fish and
Wildlife Service and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game have
monitored the 150,000-member Porcupine caribou herd, which migrates
between the North Slope and Canada's Yukon Territory.
   They captured 10 animals, fitted them with transmitter collars,
and returned them to the herd. Now, about 25 times a day, one of
two weather satellites streaks overhead at 18,000 mph, picking up
signals.
   The messages are recorded, then dumped as the satellite passes
over a ground receiver in interior Alaska. The data is relayed to
Toulouse, France, where the French space agency CNES translates the
encoded messages and stores them on computers for retrieval by
researchers.
   Experiments with satellite tracking of animals began in the
early 1970s, Beaty said. The satellites were ready; the trick has
been making transmitters powerful enough to reach into space yet
small enough not to impede the animal.
   There have been setbacks. Fish and Wildlife scientists last year
tried solar-powered transmitters on swans in Alaska. In the arctic
cold, the transmitters died, the birds disappeared and the
scientists went back to the drawing board.
   But successes are starting to outnumber the failures. Telonics
claims a three-year perfect record for transmitters used on
terrestrial animals. And transmitters are shrinking in size and
cost; the ones used on caribou, for example, now sell for $3,000,
down from $12,000 two years ago.
   That's a bargain, Pank said. A comparable caribou study using
radio transmitters would cost the government five times more,
mostly for aircraft charters, he estimated.
   Of course, there is another cost of the new technology. Tracking
animals from an office can cheat researchers of the romantic
outdoor life that lured many of them into wildlife biology in the
first place.
   But Pank said such romance is best savored after the fact.
``When you're in snow and wind on the North Slope and you're
worried about your tent falling down, you think it sure would be
nice to be sitting behind a television screen in an office.''

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
85.1	Tracking manatees with satellites	VERGA::KLAES	All the Universe, or nothing!	`Tue Jun 02 1992 10:39`	98
	Article: 2878 From: [email protected] Newsgroups: clari.tw.science,clari.tw.computers,clari.tw.electronics Subject: Sleepy manatees are avid travelers Date: Mon, 18 May 92 4:19:16 PDT ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (UPI) -- Tracking monitors attached to manatees' tails have given scientists new insights into the sleepy, slow-moving animals' behavior, suggesting they roam farther than previously thought. Vector, a young male manatee content to doze the morning away, is one of eight Tampa Bay manatees outfitted with $4,000 satellite transmitters in December. Technical difficulties caused most to fall off. They were recovered and will be put on additional manatees next month. Currently, Vector and a female named Zephyr are the only manatees wearing transmitters. The devices were purchased with money from the ``Save The Manatee'' license plates and a portion of boater registration fees dedicated to manatee research. The equipment gives scientists their best insights yet into how manatees spend their time. They are learning, for instance, that the animals can migrate long distances. ``On the east coast, where the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been studying them for about five years, they've had animals move from Dade County up to south Georgia,'' biologist Beth Beeler said. ``When they're in the migratory mind-set, they have a definite place they want to be and they just go.'' An orbiting space satellite sends information about Vector's whereabouts to a central computer in Maryland. The data are relayed to the Florida Marine Research Institute, the research arm of the Florida Department of Natural Resources in St. Petersburg. The satellite tells biologists where Vector was last spotted. They take to the water, relying on a radio transmitter to further narrow the hunt. When steady pings tell them they're close, the biologists lower a sonic hydrophone into the water and turn a portable antenna until a clear signal pinpoints the manatee. The transmitters are encased in a waterproof cone that Vector trails along behind him on a tether. The tether, designed to break if it becomes tangled, is attached to a wide belt fastened around the base of Vector's fan-shaped tail. Vector probably doesn't even realize the 10-pound device is attached to his 2,000-pound body, biologist Amy Russell said. When Vector nears the surface, the whole contraption floats along behind him, looking from a distance like a bright orange bomb with a long white fuse. One day last week, an overnight satellite signal showed Vector near a favorite spot, St. Petersburg's Coffee Pot Bayou. When the scientists launched their boat in the morning, the radio receiver pegged him near Weedon Island. His presence was confirmed by the bobbing orange transmitter cone and his own whiskered nose poking up every few minutes for air. Vector and seven other manatees were just below the surface of the shallow, seagrass-carpeted waters, engaged in a favorite manatee pastime -- napping. Beeler was even able to snorkel over to him and replace the radio transmitter with a new one before he woke. A manatee's day involves a lot of naps. They can stay underwater for 20 minutes before having to surface for air. Another favorite activity is eating: Manatees scarf down about 100 pounds of seagrass and other aquatic plants each day. They have a playful streak, too, and roll and tumble with each other. Two manatees often surface nose to nose as though they are kissing. Beeler said one female called Big Mama used to ``stand'' face to face in the water with her, so the scientist could scratch her belly. Vector has few scars on his broad back, but some of his companions have many. Boat propellers are the major human-related cause of manatee deaths. Russell took photos of the manatees' slashed backs for use in a ``scar catalog'' that will help biologists identify individual manatees in the bay. Belying manatees' reputation as ponderous, slow-moving animals, Vector recently journeyed to the mouth of the Suwannee River, a trip that required him to swim out to the Gulf of Mexico and then north for 150 miles. He got there in three days. ``He's been everywhere,'' said Beeler. ``He really moves.''
85.2	Satellite tracking of manatees improved	VERGA::KLAES	Life, the Universe, and Everything	`Mon Feb 08 1993 12:26`	40
	Article: 3985 From: [email protected] (UPI) Newsgroups: clari.local.florida,clari.tw.science Subject: Satellites track manatee movement Date: Sat, 6 Feb 93 10:04:21 PST ST PETERSBURG, Fla. (UPI) -- Scientists at the Florida Marine Research Institute have expanded a project that tracks the movement of manatees with satellites. Begun in February 1991, the project involves fitting the endangered animals with brightly colored tethers that hold a transmitter, which sends data to a satellite, which in turn is recorded in a computer database. The tether colors also allow for aerial observation by airborne researchers. ``We're concerned that the public may try to remove the transmitter or harness from a manatee,,'' said institute spokesman Jamie Serino. ``It causes the animal no distress, and is designed to break away if it becomes entangled in anything.'' The transmitter is 21 inches long, and is connected to a four-foot tether which is attached to the base of the tail. In addition to the manatee's geographic location, the device also collects water temperature to aid biologists in understanding migration patterns. The institute, a part of the state Department of Natural Resources, tagged nine adults and one calf with transmitters Feb. 1 and 2 at the Tampa Electric Company's Apollo Beach power plant, bringing to 19 the number of animals being tracked. All of the animals are on Florida's west coast. Serino said in 1992, one animal travelled more than 1,300 miles, and that others have been detected as far north as the Suwannee River, and as far south as Everglades City. The study is funded by the Save the Manatee Club to run through 1995.