Experts to keep tabs on 5,000 Pacific creatures

Published on 14/02/2004 00:00

A PROGRAMME to tag and track 5,000 sea creatures in an attempt to find out more about the way they live is under way in the North Pacific.

More than 20 different species will be involved in the research over the next seven years, including fish such as the endangered bluefin tuna, sharks, sea birds, whales, seals, turtles and squid.

The aim is get a clearer picture of how the ocean ecosystem works, which, in turn, may help safeguard the marine environment and protect threatened species.

One of the scientists taking part, Dr Dan Costa, from the University of California-Santa Cruz, said: "People have been studying animal migrations for many years, but this is the first time that anybody has tried to take a larger, ecosystem-scale approach. By working in a broad collaboration, we can start to ask questions about how the whole open ocean system works."

The programme is led by Dr Barbara Block from Stanford University in California, who has pioneered the use of electronic tags to study the movements of large migratory fish. For the last ten years she has been tracking the migrations of bluefin tuna from the eastern seaboard of the United States across the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean.

In the Pacific, her researchers have also tagged more than 200 bluefin tuna on the coasts of California and Mexico.