Sep 18 2010
Researchers at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) are experimenting on exploiting the technology to monitor the fish habits which will enable them to forecast fish reserves.
The three-dimensional accelerometers, which are capable of tracking the motions in any plane, will be deployed to deeply understand the fish habits by monitoring their motions and calculating the rate of metabolism.
Richard Benyon, Minister of fisheries stated that it is wonderful to know that the similar technology what is applied for the computer oriented games could foretell the stock of fish in the future and is an indication of the resourcefulness of the researchers in advancing the knowledge of nature.
Cefas have formerly experimented an electronic tag in the fish which records every time whenever the mouth of the fish is opened and it gives information on whether the fish is breathing, coughing, feeding or yawning. The tag also tracks the location of the fish.
The tag functions by integrating a magnet in the fish’s jaw, with a sensor that has the potentiality of recording the fluctuations in the magnetic field upon opening or closing the mouth.
The scientists could efficiently track the activity of the fish, upon integration of the tag, in the experimental trials and at present they are deciding to utilize an entire production series to observe their open sea feeding in the wild cods.
The sensors aid Cefas researchers to understand well about the behavioral habits of the fish which in turn will throw insights into the sustainability of the stocks of fish, their distribution as well as the availability of the sources of food.
Source: http://www.cefas.co.uk