Acoustic telemetry: an essential sensor in ocean-observing systems

Acoustic telemetry is a powerful tool for observing marine animals in coastal and continental shelf ecosystems. Networks of receivers allow animals to be monitored over scales of hundreds of meters to hundreds of kilometers. Tracking may be used to monitor habitat use, home range size, timing of long-term movements and migratory patterns, and to examine biotic and abiotic factors dictating animal distribution and movements. In this chapter, we outline the design features of acoustic telemetry systems and discuss their current application, their challenges, and their future potential application. We describe new analytical techniques that improve our ability to not only quantify animal movements but provide a powerful framework for comparative studies across species and higher-order taxa. We discuss the application of acoustic telemetry and its capacity to contribute biological data to ocean-observing systems.