Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 10/20/2011 - 09:17

How much money did you spend on the equipment?

Jimmie - NWPA

Alex Eilers

Terrific question Jimmie!
I made the assumption you were referring to the satellite tags I showed you last Thursday. If not, just let me know.
This information was provided by Dr. Jennifer Burns.
Satellite tags range in price from ~ 2,000 to ~ $8,000 each depending on what you want them to do.
• The ‘cheap’ ones only provide information on seal location but don’t collect any data.
• For 3-5K you get tags that provide information on location and diving patterns (the way in which this data is collected and processed varies by manufacturer).
• The tags our team uses are made in the UK, and are more expensive - about 8K. These tags collect dive data and information on the water column (salinity & temperature at depth) and give us location data, so they are fairly high tech.
Details on the tag can be found at [here](http://www.smru.st-andrews.ac.uk/Instrumentation/pageset.aspx?psr=288)
Thanks again for you question and keep them coming!
Ms. Alex