The Atlantic cooperative telemetry network: A collaborative approach to telemetry data exchange in the eastern United States

Passive acoustic telemetry is a relatively low cost and reliable method to examine large scale patterns of habitat utilization, behavior, and movement.  The highly migratory nature of some fishes coupled with the recent advent of this technology raises issues including equipment compatibility, data ownership and exchange.  The Atlantic Cooperative Telemetry (ACT) Network was created to maximize this technology’s potential by facilitating data sharing along the Atlantic coast.  What started with word-of-mouth and email exchanges is now a more formalized network of research groups from Maine to Florida with arrays ranging in size from small river drainages to coastal systems.  The ACT Network provides members with transmitter codes deployed by other participants.  The level of sharing depends on the researchers; general or detailed information about transmitter locations can be provided on a case by case basis.  We are working to enhance the ACT Network by developing an interactive web-based data sharing system, with the ability to provide summary detection locations and times to registered members.  We feel that the ACT Network could be used as a model for enhancing collaborative efforts as well as serving a role in existing networks like the Ocean Tracking Network and Integrated Ocean Observing System.