IEEE News: NEW TAG USED TO MAP WHALE BEHAVIOR

In the latest issue of "IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications," researchers from the University of New Hampshire (USA) and the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary discuss their findings on a new geospatial recording tag that tracks and visualizes Humpback whale behavior in deep areas of the ocean. The researchers hope the findings will minimize whale deaths and accidents with sailing and fishing equipment. A tag merges and compresses data in a flash drive before releasing itself from the animal and floating to the surface. This data is fed into a program, called GeoZui4D, which creates 3D images of the whale's swimming patterns. This pattern data is then fed into a program called TrackPlot, which creates temporal ribbons that show the whales' behavior, much like a map. Of the findings, the tag confirmed that whales do roll sideways during much of their time underwater (previously thought to only occur during feeding), and that they use different flukes strokes when descending and ascending. Read more, including image captures from the program (PDF): the link