Cormorant Oceanography Project Collaboration with Point Blue: Biologging Data from Brandt's Cormorants (Urile penicillatus), Farallon Islands, 2021

Oceanographic sampling of the coastal ocean is often sparse in space and time and in situ observations are needed to understand the complex physical processes in this zone. This dataset was collected by Point Blue Conservation Science and shared with the Cormorant Oceanography Project (https://www.osudashcams.com/). The Cormorant Oceanography Project is an interdisciplinary collaboration between oceanographers and seabird ecologists based at Oregon State University, and is in partnership with collaborators globally. We are advancing biologging tag technologies for use with cormorant species to measure in situ oceanographic conditions. This also offers a unique opportunity to study the distribution and behaviors of cormorants relative to environmental conditions along their daily foraging paths. Our biologging tags include combinations of fast-response sensors to measure water temperature, conductivity, and pressure. Each tag contains an inertial measurement unit (IMU) to monitor acceleration and orientation. A GPS unit, triggered when a bird surfaces, provides locations for georeferencing measurements. The sensors collect large volumes of data that are transmitted and retrieved using two-way cellular communications. This dataset consists of GPS tracks and dive profiles from Brandt's Cormorants, tagged on the Farallon Islands during the 2021 breeding season. Cormorants were fitted with GPS-GSM tags, six tags were integrated with temperature, depth and IMU sensors and one with integrated with temperature, depth, salinity and IMU sensors. Birds were tracked throughout the breeding period and post-breeding migration.