Real-Time Tracking

We run the worlds only (?) true Real-Time High-Res Fish Tracking System

Visit the Real-Time Tracking system
to see where the fish are right now

Where are the fish right now?

This question is asked over and over by scientists studying fish behaviour, anglers seeking the next catch, managers, stake-holdes and other people with a general interest in the aquatic realm. However, visually observing fish in the natural environment is inherently challenging and the question is most often left unanswered.

For the project Sustainable Lake Stewardship this is a highly prioritizied question to answer for several reasons. For instance, part of the project is targetting removal of as much planktivorous fish biomass as possible as part of a whole suite of measures to bring the now highly eutrophicated lake back to its previous clear water state. Moreover, the project is seeking a high level of public awareness and outreach, and what could be better than showing where the fish are right now? To enable exactly that and to answer the long-lasting question, we developed an real-time tracking system visualizing where the (tagged) fish are right now. The system is online and available to all at https://live.telemetry.fish.

Example of seine fishing in Lake Ormstrup — Honestly, not much seems to happen, when observing fish in real-time. However, condensing 24 hour to a short animation, makes it clear that a lot is actually going on in the lake. Notice, for instance, the brief schooling aggregation of roach (*Rutilus rutilus*, blue dots) at approximately 17:00. Besides roach, we are tracking northern pike (*Esox lucius*, orange dots) and European perch (*Perca fluviatillis*, green dots).

Technical Stuff

Our real-time tracking system is made from a combination of YAPS, R Shiny, PostgreSQL (and various other Open-Source software) and hardware and cloud-services from Thelma Biotel (hydrophones, LoRa-network and gateway). Very briefly, each submerged hydrophone is connected to an aerial, which relays detections to an on-shore gateway using a local LoRa-network. The gateway transmits data through a GSM-connection via a cloud service to our workstation, which continuously crunch the numbers using YAPS. Even though the system is developed towards hardware from one specific manufacturer, real-time data streams from any hydrophone manufacturer can be used.

Funding

We are very grateful for funding to develop our real-time tracking system provided by Poul Due Jensen Foundation.

More info

For more info, please contact Henrik Baktoft.