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Playing Tag with Marine Mammals

October 23, 2011

The digital acoustic recording tag (DTAG) was developed to monitor the behavior of marine mammals and their response to sound throughout the dive cycle. As with any piece of oceanographic equipment, however, new capabilities and new scientific questions have required it to evolve. DTAG-1 (bottom) was created in 1999 to sample the orientation of whales and other animals in three dimensions. DTAG-2 (center left) improved on the original in 2003 by adding greater recording data capacity and quality. The 2009 version, DTAG-3 (top) packs even greater capacity in a smaller housing. DTAGs can be deployed for as long as 30 hours.(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)