Downloading data from animal tags

Educational value

• Dr Miles Lamare and fellow researchers in New Zealand were involved in creating a new tagging technique. These scientists wanted to electronically tag sea stars as part of a sea star research project. While tagging marine vertebrate animals is common, very few invertebrates have ever been tagged.
• Attaching electronic tags to sea stars is challenging as sea stars are able to shed their arms. Dr Lamare's research group had success attaching tags by piercing an arm with metal. They used this technique to tag eleven-armed sea stars ('Coscinasterias muricata') in Fiordland, New Zealand. Sea stars are important marine predators and play a role in keeping the numbers of other organisms down. Sea stars are predators of many types of food including mussels, clams and oysters. Sea stars are preyed upon by sharks and rays.
• The electronic tags were attached to sea stars for about three weeks, and recorded information about water temperature, depth and salinity. After being removed, the tags were placed in a communication box attached to the computer. The data stored on the tags was then downloaded and analysed.
• Electronic tags are a useful tool for gathering information about animals and their environment. Attaching tags to marine animals is an effective way of understanding more about ocean ecology. Data obtained from tags can help scientists form conservation plans.

Year level

5; 6; 7; 8

Topics Scientific instruments Predation Sea stars Scientists Food webs Laboratories Marine biologists