TOPP Blog

TOPP Publishes Findings in Nature

RandyKochevar — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:03:30 -0700

In 1999, a bold plan was laid out to establish a broad collaboration among biologists, oceanographers, engineers and computer scientists in the emerging field of “biologging” science. At a workshop held at Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, California, more than 50 people gathered and developed a program using electronic tags to simultaneously follow the migrations and behaviors of 23 different species of marine animals – including whales, seals, fishes, sharks, seabirds, turtles and even squid. The scientsts’ vision was that, by following such a dive

White Shark Team Takes Census of Northern California Population

RandyKochevar — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 10:04:25 -0800

The white shark research team has published two papers in the past few days, documenting the ability to recognize individual sharks year after year by the distinctive shapes and markings on their dorsal fins; and then using this information to estimate the total size of the white shark population in this region. The first study, which was published March 1 in the journal Marine Biology (Anderson et.

TOPP data to be integrated into Ocean Observing System

RandyKochevar — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 12:49:11 -0800

Back in the early days of TOPP, one of our goals was to see if it might be possible to one day use the data we get from tagged animals to help us understand the ocean itself. This concept, which we dubbed "Animals as Ocean Sensors," came a giant step closer to reality last week, with the birth of a new partnership between GTOPP and the national Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS).

Antarctic Weddell seal tagging project- Deployments, Take 2

LuisHuckstadt — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 17:35:20 -0800

Daniel Costa, Jennifer Burns, Mary Zavanelli, Michelle Shero and Luis Huckstadt, from McMurdo Station, Antarctica -

Field team January 2011 with the last tagged Weddell seal . First row (left to right): Dr. Dan Costa, Dr. Mary Zavanelli. Standing (left to right): Luis Huckstadt, Dr. Jennifer Burns, Michelle Shero . Photo by Dan Costa.

TOPP Researchers Describe Habitat Preferences of Leatherback Sea Turtles: A Key First Step in Open Ocean Conservation

RandyKochevar — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 15:57:27 -0800

News update from Eastern Antarctica

LuisHuckstadt — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 21:39:37 -0800

Luis Huckstadt, Patrick Robinson, Kim Goetz, Jen Maresh in McMurdo Station, Antarctica-

If you want to study top predators, you have to follow them. That's it, no way around it (or at least we like to see it that way). So, as the enthusiastic biologists that we are, we were somehow happy about the new challenge in sight: Go to the white continent to study Weddell seals (Part II) right when the "spring season" would be hitting the continent, and the weather was changing from horrible to bad.

Farallones 2010 White Shark Expedition

RandyKochevar — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 09:12:46 -0800

The 2010 TOPP white shark tagging expedition to the Farallon Islands was lead by Dr. Salvador Jorgensen and began on October 7 aboard the S.R.V. Derek M. Bayliss.

TOPP Researchers in Antarctica

RandyKochevar — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 08:27:51 -0800

Dr. Dan Costa from UC Santa Cruz has his team down on the ice right now tagging and tracking seals.

Day in the Life of a Living Dissertation

SaraMaxwell — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 20:23:05 -0700

I had an incredible day out on Monterey Bay where I saw my dissertation come to life! I recently finished my thesis at UCSC with Dan Costa and my work focused on top predator hotspots for conservation along the West Coast.

Census Celebrates a Decade of Discovery

RandyKochevar — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 16:22:50 -0700

On October 4 the international Census of Marine Life unveiled the discoveries made during the ten years since it was launched. The global press conference, held in London, has generated hundreds of articles around the globe. In the two days that followed, representatives from each of the Census field projects and National and Regional Implementation Committees (NRICs) presented summaries of their findings. The three days were capped off with an incredible celebration at the Museum of Natural History, which was decked out just for the special event.