OTN Deployment Team Heads Down Under for First Overseas Deployment

OTN deployment team members Stephane Kirchhoff and Duncan Bates headed down under January 21st, 2009 for the deployment of OTN's first overseas listening line off Perth, Western Australia.

Photo by Andrew Boomer, AATAMS

The team spent three weeks in Australia working in collaboration with the Perth deployment team — consisting of Rory McAuley and Nick Jarvis, from WA Fisheries, and Andrew Boomer and Charlie Huveneers, from SIMS, and their colleagues.

Together, they placed a listening line of 55 acoustic receivers in the E Indian Ocean extending off the southern coast of Western Australia offshore for about 50 kilometres.

Species of interest that will be tagged in the vicinity of the Perth Line include whale sharks, great white sharks, and tuna. The OTN listening line complements the shark monitoring program of WA Fisheries that is listening for tagged great white sharks in the vicinity of Perth beaches.

Additional images and video from the Perth Line deployment can be found in the OTN Multimedia Gallery.

Story by Susan Dufault, OTN Headquarters