SEA-UNICORN Working Group 1 held a training workshop on the basics of biologging from 6th-9th of September 2022 in Sète, France.
This initiative, organized by Audrey Darnaude (MARBEC, France) supported by WG1 co-leaders Susanne Tanner (MARE, Portugal) and Anna Sturrock (University of Essex, UK), gathered 21 participants from 10 different countries. The aim was to train researchers and early career investigators working in other areas of marine connectivity in the basics of biologging, particularly acoustic telemetry, data storage tags and GPS tags. This cross-disciplinary knowledge transfer intends to facilitate cross-method integration and innovation. The four trainers were Amber-Robyn Childs (Rhodes University, South Africa), Sophie Lanco-Bertrand (MARBEC, France), Fabien Forget (MARBEC, France) and Stefanie Haase (Thünen Institute of Baltic Sea Fisheries, Germany).
During the 3.5 days of training, the 16 participants discussed ecological questions that can be answered using different tagging/telemetry approaches, learned about different tag types (e.g. GPS tags, data storage tags, acoustic tags) - their applications and limitations and how to model, simulate and visualize biologging data. Participants also gave speed talks about their own work, and visited the MARBEC Biologging lab for a fun ‘show and tell’ with Fabien Forget. In a final group exercise, participants designed a study for two contrasting species integrating biologging techniques with other methods and created a 'Practical User Guide' and conceptual figure.
Thank you to all trainers, coordinators and participants for such a stimulating, productive and enjoyable week!
