International marine researchers are getting a glimpse beneath the world's oceans using a surfboard-inspired, unmanned 'wave glider' device that collects data about the creatures living beneath the waves.
The Ocean Tracking Network is based at Dalhousie University in Halifax.
Traditionally, scientists have tagged animals -- everything from fish to seals, penguins, whales and crabs -- then tracked their movements using an underwater network of receivers.
But the data from those receivers had to be physically collected by vessels that would travel out to their location and download the information at considerable cost to research organizations.
Now, the unmanned David Lillienfeld Wave Glider device can collect and transmit data from the receivers without having to send a ship and crew.
"We've tagged all sorts of different animals, we've had cod and tuna and salmon, but once you've tagged the animals you still need to detect their signals," Richard Davis, technical lead for the Ocean Tracking Network told CTV's Canada AM.
"We've laid out a series of lines of receivers in key places on the bottom that detect the acoustic signals coming from the fish. So this wave glider is our first chance to have a mobile receiver that we can send to areas that we think we might be able to pick up an interesting signal."
The wave glider -- named after a surfer killed by a great white shark in 2012 off the coast of South Africa -- is expected to travel 6,000 kilometres during a four-month deployment as it collects data.
The device is also equipped with an Airmar Weatherstation that helps predict hurricanes
Already, researchers have learned previously unknown details about how seals hunt on Sable Island off Newfoundland, and have proven that salmon mass together in groups before beginning their migration.
They're also gaining new insights into Canada's precious halibut stocks.
"As part of the ocean tracking network up in the Arctic, we know the ice is thinning and it's become easier to exploit resources up there and so we've been tagging halibut and there has always been a belief there are two different fishing stocks of halibut that they would fish in the summer and the winter," Davis said.
"And it turns out, from what we know now, it's actually one fishing stock that moves seasonally and so this little discovery is going to allow us to manage that particular resource better."
The wave glider consists of a surfboard-like device on the surface, equipped with solar panels and electronics. Hanging beneath the board is an underwater sled that adjusts to whatever is happening on the surface, controlling the direction of the device as it moves across the ocean, powered entirely by wave action.
"When you were a kid did you ever stick your hand out the car window when you were driving down the road? And you might angle your hand up or down? That's exactly what happens with the wave glider -- the motion creates forward momentum," Davis said.
The Dalhousie-based Ocean Tracking Network is a $168-million project involving over 200 international researchers tracking marine species.
In addition to tracking the movement and behaviour of specific species of sea creatures, the wave glider also tracks weather patterns and the effects of climate change in the world's oceans.
