Passive Acoustic Telemetry Technology : Current Applications And Future

The development and popularity of VR2 automated acoustic receiver technology produced by VEMCO Ltd. of Nova Scotia, Canada has significantly increased over the last five years. This technology is currently being used by biologists worldwide to assess movement patterns, behavior, and site fidelity of fishes and invertebrates. However, while this technology has significantly increased our understanding of behavior of marine organisms in the wild, limitations in design and the dramatic increase in use has resulted in a number of potential problems for all users (transmitter/rcode tags). Therefore, there is strong need to assemble VR2 users from around the world, with engineers from Vemco, to establish a registry of users and discuss ways of avoiding coding conflicts and maximizing data sharing. This document summarizes the results of discussions amongst VR2 users and Vemco staff. User concerns were addressed by Vemco staff and the current limitations and future directions of this technology were presented and discussed. Issues with current applications of the technology were evaluated and potential solutions were discussed. Problems regarding database use, data management, handling and analysis were explored and potential new venues for handling and displaying data were presented.