CALL FOR ABSTRACTS Advances in Biologging Technology and the Emergence of Apex Marine Predators as Prolific Ocean Samplers Session at the American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting San Francisco, California, December 11-15th, 2006 Conveners: Steven Bograd (NOAA, SWFSC), Barbara Block (Stanford), Dan Costa (UCSC) Recent developments in telemetry and biologging technology have greatly enhanced our ability to enlist apex marine predators to sample their environment. These “animal oceanographers” identify critical foraging habitat, migration corridors, and regions of high occupancy, i.e., biological hot spots. They also provide a significant amount of physical data from some of the most dynamic and biologically important regions of the ocean. In this context, the Tagging of Pacific Pelagics (TOPP) program has contributed more than 2000 animal tracks, 100,000 animal tracking days, and nearly 2,000,000 water column profiles from electronic tags deployed on 23 marine species throughout the North Pacific Ocean. TOPP and other international biologging programs have demonstrated the efficacy and reliability of electronically-tagged animals to greatly enhance operational ocean observing systems, both in the coastal and open ocean, and to provide large quantities of highly-resolved oceanographic data for hydrographic archives and for use in ocean model validation and assimilation. Continued use of tagged marine animals will allow for improved monitoring and management of critical biological habitat, and will augment developing ocean observing systems. This session will showcase the latest developments in tag technology and oceanographic data collection by apex marine predators from various parts of the world ocean. See session listings at: http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm06/? content=search Submit abstracts at: http://submissions4.agu.org/submission/entrance.asp Deadline for electronic abstract submission is September 7th, 2006.