Scientists and GPS
You have to be kidding me; scientists are using GPS to track juvenile salmon migration routes?
October 2008, an announcement was posted live on the Internet that even scientists use GPS units to track juvenile salmon migration routes. Using sophisticated GPS units, the scientist can monitor the juvenile salmon during migration.
Amazingly, the GPS was capable of producing results, which included that there weren’t any salmon farms around wild salmon. Other reports came that stated that salmon farming has outgrown its environment, and salmon was caught by anglers around Scotland and it estimated to more than 90,000 during 2007.
Scientists traced the progress of juvenile salmons over a 1500-mile radius from the flowing rivers where the salmons first arrived and into the sea. Using the GPS, scientist claimed they could achieve a deeper understanding of the salmon’s lifecycle, which has been anonymity until the GPS was born.
Pacific salmon have been tracked to the Columbia headwaters to Fraser Rivers and on into the Canada Rockies. They have also been tracked to the North Pacific and around continental shelves of Alaska.
Some of the largest marines such as sea turtles, sharks, etc were tagged by scientists for the first time. During a 2006 research, the implant tags were placed on the fish, which the tag was the size of an almond nut. The reading showed that around 1000 young salmons in the Chinook family were the same length as a hot dog, but about half the weight.
The fishes were estimated to be 5-inches lengthwise and weighed around 1-ounce. Scientists also tracked the fishes movement while using an general network of audio undersea receivers in the rivers and shelves around the continental in which the scientist were able to capture electronic signals once the fish swam by along the same path as the electronic toll booth record passes a vehicle prepared with a transponder.
The fish moved while being tracked by extensive networks in which two of the salmon had sustained life along a 1500-mile trip. It took three months to travel this trip starting from the higher reaches of Snake River. They traveled through this tributary of Columbia River into Idaho and on into the sea and finally arriving at North parts of Alaska. The journey equates to the same amount of time it would take someone to travel from London to Moscow or Istanbul.
Using the GPS, scientists were able to understand where salmon came from, where they travel, and what happens to them during their travel. The innovative sound-emitting tags that are used with sophisticated coastal networks have made it possible for scientists to understand salmon more completely.
We all know that the GPS unit can track vehicles, but how was we to know that scientists could use these obvious powerful units to track undersea animals. It is amazing how the GPS works, but the growth of these powerful devices has become a worldwide interest to people of all sorts.