The coastal ocean is a dynamic and complex region and environmental conditions are challenging to adequately sample from satellites, oceanographic vessels, or autonomous vehicles. The development of miniaturized biologging tags for marine birds, such as cormorants, offers a unique opportunity to sample environmental conditions along the daily foraging paths of diving seabirds. We are refining and deploying dozens of solar-powered, network-connected (GSM) biologging tags to measure in-situ environmental conditions along the daily foraging paths of cormorants.

The Cormorant Oceanography Project is an interdisciplinary collaboration between physical oceanographers and seabird ecologists based at Oregon State University.