SeaTag: Design and Manufacture of a Family of Modular Archival Tags

Small archival tags are a potentially powerful resource management tool. Yet, limited selection and high cost diminishes the technology¿s suitability for widespread studies. This proposal introduces a modular architecture for archival tag. SeaTag provides a rich and expandable sensing and data transmission/retrieval capability, while using the economies of scale of a modular product line to substantially reduce per-unit cost. The accelerated Phase I effort will build on our company¿s internal research to design and deliver a quantity (20 units) of small experimental archival tags that offer `unlimited life¿ through solar power augmentation, improved geo location through earth magnetic field measurements and additional sensing capabilities including acceleration and light color. Phase II builds on this foundation to develop a selection of complementary tags, some providing data on individual animals, others monitoring population groups and their environment. Acoustic networking technology will boost data recovery rates and enable a very small & inexpensive tag.