Dear marine biologists and scientists,

Some of you are probably using Fastloc-GPS tags to track animals. We just published a paper in Methods in Ecology And Evolution were we investigated the typical accuracy of Fastloc-GPS tags. We also provide a methodology to calculate accurate speed of travels and headings. Globally, our results confirm that Fastloc-GPS is a powerful tool to study marine species movement.

Dujon A. M., Lindstrom R. T. and Hays G. C., 2014. The accuracy of Fastloc-GPS locations and implications for animal tracking, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.12286

The publication can be downloaded in open access at this link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/2041-210X.12286/abstract

Publication Abstract:

1. Over recent years, a major breakthrough in marine animal tracking has occurred with the advent of Fastloc-GPS that provides highly accurate location data even for animals that only surface briefly such as sea turtles, marine mammals and penguins.

2. We assessed the accuracy of Fastloc-GPS locations using fixed trials of tags in which >45 000 locations were obtained. Procedures for determining the speed of travel and heading were developed by simulating tracks and then adding Fastloc-GPS location errors. The levels of detail achievable for speed and heading estimates were illustrated by using empirical Fastloc-GPS data for a green turtle (Chelonia mydas, Linnaeus, 1758) travelling over 3000 km across the Indian Ocean.

3. The accuracy of Fastloc-GPS locations varied as a function of the number of GPS satellites used in the location calculation. For example, when Fastloc-GPS locations were calculated using 4 GPS satellites, 50% of locations were within 36 m and 95% within 724 m of the true position. These values improved to 18 and 70 m, respectively, when 6 satellites were used. Simulations indicated that for animals travelling around 2·5 km h⁻¹ (e.g. turtles, penguins and seals) and depending on the number of satellites used in the location calculation, robust speed and heading estimates would usually be obtained for locations only 1–6 h apart.

4. Fastloc-GPS accuracy is several orders of magnitude better that conventional Argos tracking or light-based geolocation and consequently will allow new insights into small-scale movement patterns of marine animals.

If you have any questions about that work, feel free to contact me.

Best Regards,

Antoine DUJON

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Antoine DUJON
PhD Student In Quantitative Movement Analysis
Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences
Deakin University, Warrnambool Campus, PO Box 423, Warrnambool, VIC 3280
Email : adujon@deakin.edu.au

Google Scholar : http://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=-rH46BsAAAAJ

Research Gate https:/www.researchgate.net/profile/Antoine_Dujon

Twitter : https://twitter.com/AMDujon

Recent publications:

Dujon A. M., Lindstrom R. T. and Hays G. C., 2014. The accuracy of Fastloc-GPS locations and implications for animal tracking, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.12286

FREELY AVAILABLE HERE: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/2041-210X.12286/abstract