When acoustic receivers are laid as a series of lines over a given geographic area, they provide the means to gather not only “point A to B” information gained with traditional physical tagging techniques, but also more fine-scale and direct data on the movements and behavior of migratory animals such as travel speeds, spatial and temporal distribution, periods of transit in a given area, and population survival estimates.
The arrays that Kintama deploy are designed to have a high detection rate of tagged animals. As such, a large-scale acoustic array allows researchers to directly test specific hypotheses with respect to movement and survival.
Once scientists have the tools available to determine where and when marine animals move, and where survival bottlenecks might exist, this precise information can be used to help inform fisheries and conservation management decisions. No other technology provides this.