IMOS Animal Tracking Facility

The IMOS Animal Tracking Facility, led by SIMS, comprises two complementary sub-Facilities — Acoustic Telemetry and Animal Tagging. Each uses distinct technologies to track species and deliver long-term, high-resolution data on the movement, behaviour and ecology of marine and freshwater animals, while also providing critical ocean observations from some of the world’s most difficult-to-access regions.

Acoustic Telemetry operates a national-scale receiver network to monitor animal movement and connectivity, while Animal Tagging uses animal-borne ocean sensors from the tropics to Antarctica to capture unique behavioural and oceanographic data. Each stream generates valuable insights in its own right, which are used to inform conservation, fisheries management, climate monitoring and ecosystem resilience.

The Animal Tracking Facility is part of the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS), a national collaborative research infrastructure program supported by the Australian Government through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). Established in 2006, IMOS operates as a fully integrated observing system at both ocean-basin and regional scales, measuring key physical, biological and chemical variables that underpin marine research, environmental management and policy. IMOS is operated by a consortium of institutions — the University of Tasmania (lead), AIMS, BoM, CSIRO, SARDI, SIMS and UWA — with SIMS serving as the NSW Node and host to several facilities and sub-facilities.

Animal Tracking – Acoustic Telemetry

The IMOS Acoustic Telemetry sub-Facility, hosted at SIMS since 2007, delivers long-term data on the movement, behaviour, and distribution of aquatic species across Australia’s ocean, coastal, and estuarine waters. Its purpose is to inform management and conservation of Australia’s marine resources by providing robust evidence on migratory patterns, habitat use, population structures, connectivity, and the effectiveness of MPAs.

Overseen by Emeritus Professor Rob Harcourt and managed at SIMS by Ms Emma Bowen, the sub-Facility coordinates Australia’s national acoustic telemetry array, providing a unified platform for tracking marine and freshwater animals. The network integrates a permanent array of IMOS receivers with a dynamic collection maintained by co-investment partners, with 1,339 active receivers feeding into the centralised IMOS Animal Acoustic Telemetry Database on the AODN. Since inception, it has collected data for 179 species and more than 13,700 animals, supporting a wide range of ecological and management applications.

In 2024 the sub-Facility launched the Coasts & Estuaries expansion project, which will deliver new long-term infrastructure in Roebuck Bay (Broome, WA), the Gulf of Carpentaria, South Australia, and expanded support for the Queensland Telemetry Array. Recent additions have also extended coverage across estuarine and freshwater systems, including major arrays in New Zealand and NSW rivers, highlighting both cross-jurisdictional connectivity and the facility’s value for ecosystem-scale research.

To maintain operational excellence, the sub-Facility draws on the diverse expertise of its dedicated team, including Science Officer Dr Yuri Niella and Technical Officers Jarrod McDonald and Sam Allan, who oversee infrastructure, deliver data and ensure scientific rigour and innovation.

Animal Tracking – Animal Tagging

The IMOS Animal Tagging sub-Facility, led by Emeritus Professor Rob Harcourt and managed at SIMS by Dr Clive McMahon, has operated since 2007 as part of Australia’s sustained contribution to the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS). The program uses animal-borne sensors to collect high-resolution oceanographic data from otherwise inaccessible regions, while also providing unique insights into animal behaviour and ecology. Over the past two decades, the program has deployed sensors on seals, sea lions, fur seals and turtles, generating hundreds of thousands of vertical sub-surface profiles from the tropics to Antarctica. These observations are now an integral part of global climate monitoring, supporting more than 200 peer-reviewed publications.

Seal-borne Conductivity-Temperature-Depth Satellite Relay Data Loggers (CTD-SRDLs) deployed on southern elephant and Weddell seals deliver essential sub-surface observations across the Southern Ocean and Antarctic coastlines. These data underpin the GOOS Animal-Borne Ocean Sensors (AniBOS) network and are critical for monitoring ocean heat content, water mass properties and bathymetry. Complementing this, turtle-borne sensors deployed on olive ridley and flatback turtles in Northern Australia collect sub-surface data that informs tropical storm forecasting and supports pan-tropical observing, strengthening coastal and community safety and resilience.

The sub-Facility’s quality assurance and control protocols were the first to be endorsed by IMOS through the Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS), reinforcing its reputation for excellence and reliability. Looking ahead, the program will continue deploying instrumentation on animals to observe regions of data paucity and collect coupled physical and biogeochemical observations, to inform global climate forecasting and resilience. This work will continue to address key knowledge gaps in global ocean circulation, air-sea fluxes, ice-shelf processes, storm forecasting and hazard preparedness.

Through long-term collaborations, technological innovation and global data sharing, the IMOS Animal Tagging sub-Facility is internationally recognised as the lead agency in sustained animal-borne ocean observing, delivering critical insights into ocean state, climate change and marine ecosystem dynamics.