BioDesign: Bioinspired Sensor Attachment for Advancing Long-Term Telemetry of Critically Endangered Marine Organisms

Several marine mammal populations are at risk of extinction because limited information on their behaviors precludes successful protective regulations. What scientists often lack to inform drafting of effective protective legislation is near real-time data on the behaviors and migration routes of critically endangered marine mammal populations. Current tagging strategies either do not stay attached for long enough or are made permanent through puncture methods that can be harmful to the organism being studied. To this end, this project will use a bioinspired attachment device, modeled after remora fishes that attach to any substrate under water, to design and test a tagging device that will be able to attach for long periods of time without causing harm to the attachment surface. Through the last decade, the principal investigator's research team has worked on understanding the fundamental mechanisms ruling the long-term, nondestructive adhesion of remoras. As one result of those efforts, a low-fidelity bioinspired prototype of the disc portion of the remora attachment mechanism has been prototyped. To be able to meet end-user needs of a non-invasive, long-term tag capable of adhering at any speed or depth for a determined amount of time, this project lays out a clear objective for research that can be accomplished through cross-sector partnerships uniting multiple universities, several industry partners with experience in this field, and multiple federal agencies, including NOAA Fisheries, the Alaskan Eskimo Whaling Commission, North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium, and the US Navy. The overarching goal of this project is to radically improve the current state of endangered marine organism monitoring and conservation by dramatically increasing the reliability of biotelemetry tag attachment. The initial demonstrator model will advance sealing interface technology and include pressure modulation systems to ensure attachment to depths of 1800 m and at any animal swim speed. This will be the first animal tracking sensor that can stay attached for extended periods of time without harming the animal and can also be programmed to release at a user-specified time, greatly improving the ability to monitor endangered cetacean migratory behavior. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.