Development of novel motion and ingestion sensors to expand applicability of the satellite-linked Life History Transmitter (LHT) for life-long monitoring of marine vertebrates in the Gulf of Alaska, 2005-2012

In this study, we tested two new sensors for future use in Life History Transmitters (LHX tags). LHX tags are designed for life-long monitoring of warm-blooded marine vertebrates. LHX tags are surgically implanted into the gut cavity of animals where they remain throughout the entire life of the host. Application of our larger first generation LHX-1 tags on the endangered western Steller sea lion led to the finding of high levels of predation on juvenile Steller sea lions in the Gulf of Alaska. Data from that study suggests that transient killer whales and Pacific sleeper sharks may prey on juvenile Steller sea lions, but our current LHX tags do not allow distinction of types of predators. The new sensors are designed to address this. One sensor will allow detecting if a transmitter is ingested by a predator. The second, a motion sensor, will give us additional data to help characterize predators, based primarily on duration of an attack. The data are presented in one csv file, which contains 60 relative absorption measurements from the Life History Transmitter (LHT) tags. Filename: 1418-dat.csv This dataset was generated under NPRB project 1418.