Scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have developed a new form of tracking technology that is specially designed to track squid, jellyfish and other small invertebrates, according to Gizmag.
Invertebrates can provide valuable information for marine scientists, especially jellyfish and squid due to their importance as both food and a source of food in the aquatic environment.
"When squid go down to a couple hundred meters, are they foraging at night at that depth, or are they resting and getting away from top predators? What are their respiration rates?" said Aran Mooney, a biologist at WHOI. "These are the types of behavior questions we wanted to answer."
The technology, called Integrated Tracking of Aquatic orGanisms (ITAG), doesn't just track how jellyfish are acting and reacting to the ocean environment. It also measures the conditions of the surrounding environment, acting as both a resource for information on both the invertebrates tagged and the environmental conditions that they live in, Engadget reported.
"Squid and other soft-bodied invertebrates have almost open circulatory systems, so they're closely linked to their physical environment," said Mooney. "As the ocean environment changes, they probably change a lot in response."
Before the creation of the ITAG, oceanographers used to track the ocean's currents and use this information to learn about to behaviors of jellyfish and squid, according to Rocky Mountain Tracking.
