STRAITS · Strategic Infrastructure for improved animal Tracking in European Seas

In order to protect and manage marine species and habitats, there is an immediate need for the creation of robust evidence-based methods and integrated platforms. Therefore, there is a need to undertake marine research projects that are developed and implemented collaboratively, strategically, and at a sufficient scale. Animal tracking is the study of animal movements across various spatiotemporal scales (local, regional, continental, global; minutes to decades). Although animal tracking is not a new field of research, only recently have these electronic technologies necessary to follow marine animal movements across larger and longer scales have only recently become widely available. Strategic Infrastructure for improved animal Tracking in European Seas (STRAITS) will leverage ongoing acoustic tracking projects across the four corners of Europe (i.e., North Channel, Danish Straits, Straits of Gibraltar and the Bosporus/Dardanelles) by expanding efforts to connect initiatives on species-based biodiversity management while developing data management plans and networking channels to deliver data to national and international governing bodies. Coordinating aquatic animal tracking and environmental observation efforts at a scale that will be usable to make progress on international marine management and planning, is a major step towards an operational European Tracking Network (ETN) that contributes to major European biodiversity initiatives, conservation, and policy.