Fisheries Research. 2 (1964) 201-216 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam -Printed zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZ in The Netherlands 201 A BASKING SHARK zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPO (CETORHINUS MAXIMUS) TRACKED BY SATELLITE TOGZ’flEl1 WITH SIMULTANEOUS .REMOTE SENSING I.G. PRIEDE Ileportment of 200r0gy, i;nick -?cit,y of zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQP Aberdeen, ‘l’illydrone Avenue, Aberdeen AB9 27’N (Gt. Britain) (Accepted for publication 22 November 1983) ABSTRACT Pried.?, LG., 1984. A basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) tracked by satellite together with simultaneous remote sensing. Fish. Res., 2: 201-216. Tracking movements of marine animals for extended periods at sea is very expensive and labour intensive. The onlv method that shows promise for world-wide tracking in long-term studies is satellite tracking. The purpose of this study was to test this technique under operatmnal conditions on basking sharks in the North Atlantic Ocean. These fish feed on plankton near the surface, and the long-term objective is to investigate the foraging and migratory move- ments in relation to sea surface temperature and plankton distribution patterns. A basking shark equipped with-a special UHF radio transmitter was tracked for 17 days off the West Coast of Scotland using the ARGOS satellite data collection and location system. The shark surfaced during warm sunny weather and its movements were rather localised. Swimminn soeed was estimated as 0.106 hodv lengths oer second between locations on successive satellite orbits. Simultaneous inf&edw im&ery using the NOAA 7 AVHRR indicated the shark’s movements relative to sea surface temp?w tore variations. This preliminary experimen: clearly demonstrates the feasibility of satellite-based monitoring of movements of marine snimals using currently available operational satel- lite systems. INTRODUCTION This paper describes the first ,uccessful tracking of a marine animal using the ARGOS satellite-based data collection and location system. A basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) was tracked over a period of 17 days, and simultaneous satellite remote sensing of sea surface features was also achieved. The whole experiment was conducted using operational satellite systems available to non-specialist users at moderate cost, and clearly in- dicates the feasibility of more widespread use of this technology in studies of animal behaviour. Fish and marine animals have been tracked using both acoustic (Stasko and Pincock, 1977; Priede, 1980) and radio transmitters (Martin et al., 0165.7836/64/$03.00 D 1984 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.