ScholarWorks@UNO

Visualization Representation of Data Collected From Acoustic and Satellite Tags

Telemetry is a PostgreSQL-driven Ruby on Rails application that allows biologists to observe the movements of fish using visual rendering of satellite and acoustic data and discover movement patterns based on environmental dynamics. Data is parsed into the system and analyzed to produce paths for each participating animal. An additional mapping component yields a graphical visualization of these paths. Combined with environmental sampling of salinity, lunar cycles, and weather patterns, these tools aim to provide biologists a rich toolset to monitor and analyze fish patterns. Participating fish in Lake Pontchartrain are tagged with transmitters emitting signals to stationary hydrophones mounted on buoys in the lake. Data is collected periodically from the buoys by field agents and imported into the Telemetry system. The retrieved data consists of detection objects detailing the latitudes, longitudes, and timestamps for each fish. Moreover, some fish are tagged with satellite transmitters whose data is collected remotely. The Telemetry project not only allows biologists to monitor fish movements, but also gives access to the fishermen for better planning their fishing strategies. In addition, both biologists and fishermen will have a better understanding of how different factors affect the fish movement patterns. The project can be accessed by the public via the live site at https://louisianafisheries.net/telemetry. To view the fish movement patterns, simply click on the “fish tracks” tab and select the appropriate fish to view their paths.