SeaTag-GEO & Docking Station

Desert Star's Conceptual Sea Tagging

In February 2010 Desert Star Systems shipped 20 SeaTag-GEOs to NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) for their 2010 Antarctica tagging season. These tags were to be attached to Chinstrap penguins and Antarctica fur seals.

 

From Mike Goebel of SWFSC:

“We will deploy these on Chinstrap penguins and Antarctic fur seals as part of an over-winter study of habitat use by these species. We know that fur seals can range as far north as the Patagonia shelf in the Atlantic but under some conditions they remain foraging all winter south of the Polar Front. They can also spend the winter off the coast of southern Chile. To what extent they use these different habitats from year to year however, is unknown. Your instruments will help us to determine how much variability there is from year to year and what oceanographic conditions change behavior and location over-winter. Even less is known about Chinstrap penguin habitat use during the winter; how far they range and where. This is mostly because their smaller size prevents using larger satellite-linked instruments to track animals at sea for many months. The size of instruments is in a large part determined by power and battery requirements. Your instruments are innovated in that they supplement power use with a solar charger and use both light and geomagnetism to determine location with relatively little power. We're excited to give them a try and advance our knowledge of how these important species survive over-winter in Antarctic waters.”

SeaTag-GEO was developed to be used as a supplement to plastic ID tagging projects. The low cost (under $400 on low quantities) and improved accuracy over light-based positioning are two major factors in SeaTag’s success.

The SeaTag product line including GEO, SOL, and MOD uses a 3-axis magnetometer to measure the intensity of the Earth’s magnetic field. The tag is then able to determine it’s latitude from this data. Through our initial tests we have seen an average accuracy of 35 nautical miles. However, through refinement we expect the overall magnetic error to decrease.

The tag does not use any batteries. Instead, the tag is wrapped in a solar cell. The sun (or powerful light source) charges the aerogel capacitor through the solar cell. While the cell is collecting the light data to charge the capacitor it also measures sunrise and sunset. With these two points the tag determines noon time, or longitude. The benefit to this approach is that there are no battery failures (ie: premature battery depletion).

 

The SeaTag product line has other advantages such as open-source software, published algorithms (no proprietary algorithms), and increased sensory functions. We have published various application notes in our knowledge base for review. These include initial magnetic field data, the International Geomagnetic Reference Field, the operator’s manual, and a SeaTag scientific poster. We constantly update the knowledge base as new data becomes available so check back periodically for new information.


SeaTag Geo



Desert Star Systems
3261 Imjin Road · Marina, CA 93933
831-384-8000 · salesinfo@desertstar.com

 

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