So, you’re about to start tracking some marine megafauna. How many tags do you need to deploy? Not sure?
Well, now you’re in luck!

A review led by the MegaMove Steering Committee published in Ecological Applications, provides the framework for researchers to answer this important question. By considering the scientific outcomes of previous studies relative to the number of tags that were deployed, as well as the ethical, logistical and technical components of such projects, Sequeira et al (2019) succinctly outline the questions that can be answered by tagging programs of various sizes.

Whether your proposed research aims to ‘innovate and discover’ (N ≤ 10 tags), to ‘confirm and consolidate’ findings (10 < N ≤ 100 tags), or provide a more ”synthetic, overarching and inter-disciplinary view’ of animal movement (N >> 100 tags), this review provides an invaluable insight into how to maximise the impact of each tag deployment in the decade of biologging.