What is an acceleration data logger (ADL)?
Acceleration data loggers represent a new tool for measuring animal behavior and energetics, because they can tell us when and how the animal’s body is actually moving. Contained within the casing of a traditional acoustic tracking tag, Vemco (Amirix Systems Inc.) acceleration data loggers have three sensors, each of which measures acceleration in a different dimension. When the logger is attached to an animal, the speed and direction of that animal’s body movements are constantly recorded for the duration of the experiment (often a week or longer, depending on sampling rate/memory and battery life). When the logger is recovered, it is downloaded to a computer and the data can be analyzed to answer various questions about the animal’s movements. These loggers have been used to study stroke velocity and energetics in a variety of species (birds, fish, mammals) but have not been previously applied to a shark.
