Development of a Pneumatic Launcher Delivery System for the New Digital Recording Tag, DTAGv3

The DTAG was originally developed to record an animal's responses to acoustic stimuli, such as naval sonar signals, and the traditional method for deploying these non invasive (suction cup) tags on large and mid-sized cetaceans has been to use long carbon fiber poles (Moore et al. 2001, Johnson and Tyack 2003). This technique works well with some of the large whales, but some mid-sized cetaceans (e.g., beaked whales, minke whales) tend to be quicker, more maneuverable, and elusive, making pole tagging rather inefficient (Johnson and Tyack 2003). The goal of this project was to develop a system that launches the DTAG through the air using a pneumatic launcher (Aerial Rocket Tag System, or ARTS), in order to extend the tagging range and thus increase tag deployment rate. A preliminary version of the ARTS-DTAG system has already proven to have potential in improving tagging efficiency, particularly with " difficult " whale species (Kvadsheim et al. 2009). However, this system needed improvement in several areas to become operational. This project included redesign of the ARTS-DTAG system compared to the 2009 version and an