SPLASH-F (Fastloc®) tags are data-archiving, satellite transmitting tags designed for tracking vertical and horizontal movements of free-range marine animals. A SPLASH-F tag works best for researchers conducting fine-scale movement studies on diving animals like cetaceans, sea turtles, and pinnipeds but also for studies involving oceanographic research. The SPLASH-F comes in a variety of shapes for a variety of attachments— whatever works best for your animal.
Fastloc technology is what sets this tag apart. Fastloc uses GPS to provide highly accurate locations in under a second. Fastloc allows for fine-scale locations on animals that surface too quickly for a traditional GPS or Argos fix— Fastloc acquires positions every few minutes compared to a maximum of a few dozen a day with Argos-only tags.
Key Benefits of Fastloc®
- Highly accurate—precise to 20 m.
- Fast acquisition—even after prolonged sleep, a location can be achieved in a fraction of a second. Very little surface exposure is needed.
- Validation pre-storing—only successful locations are saved and transmitted to allow for dynamic scheduling in case of failure.
- Flexible scheduling—fixes can be scheduled at regular intervals or duty-cycled depending on the day or season.
- Hundreds of locations are possible—hundreds achievable per day for a higher resolution track.
Available Data Products
- Depth Archive
- Temperature Archive
- Wet/Dry (0-255) Archive
- Argos Locations
- Fastloc—scheduled and post-temperature profile
- Depth Time Series
- Temperature Time Series
- Profile of Depth & Temperature (PDT)
- Empirical Cumulative Distribution of Time-At-Depth Histogram (ECD of TAD)
- Behavior Log (Coming Soon)
- Percent-Dry Timeline
Key Features Available in SPLASH Configurations
- Highly Customizable Data Collection and Transmitting Schedule—researchers have the power to customize and prioritize data collection and transmission to capture the information that is most significant for the project. Deployments can be tailored to achieve unique experimental objectives. Flexible transmissions provide the ability to extend the life of the tag by focusing on specific seasons or times of the year.
- Improved Temperature Profiles with Standard Oceanographic Levels—SPLASH-F tags offer model-ready water column profiles coupled with GPS-quality locations making it ready for animals-as-ocean-observers.
- Full Data Archive Available on Recovery—SPLASH-F tags contain two GB of onboard memory for archiving data. This means when you recover your tag, your full data set is available, even if the battery is dead— data are maintained in the archive for up to 25 years.
- Specialized Shapes—SPLASH-F tags come in many shapes and configurations. They contain an array of sensors that gather a myriad of data products.
- The Portal Advantage—SPLASH-F tags are supported by the Wildlife Computers Data Portal, a collection of data management tools and services. Developed specifically for the display and investigation of data from Wildlife Computers tags, the data portal streamlines the processes of acquiring, preserving, and sharing data services. Fastloc Solver is built right in so you can schedule automatic processing to the most reason Fastloc locations so they are ready whenever you are. The portal helps collect, prepare, and analyze the data returned from the tag—via Argos or the archive. Data are easily sorted, filtered, searched, uploaded, and shared. You can see a Google Earth display of your deployment track, color-coded to show the relative age of each location. You can also set up a live KMZ to get data into your own monitoring system.
Specifications
Below are the physical specifications of different SPLASH models. A full description of the features is available on the downloadable SPLASH-F Product Features (PDF).
| Dimensions (mm), Weight (g), Maximum Deployment Length | ** |
| Sensors | Depth, Temperature, Wet/Dry, Fastloc |
| Depth Sensor Range | 0-2000 m (dBar) |
| Depth Sensor Resolution | 0.061 m (dBar) |
| Depth Sensor Accuracy | 1% of reading (typical), 1.25% FS (maximum) |
| Temperature Sensor Range | -40 °C to 60 °C |
| Temperature Sensor Resolution | 0.02 °C |
| Temperature Sensor Accuracy | 0.1°C |
| Pressure Rating | 2000 m |
| Operating Temperature Rating (°C) | -20 °C to 50 °C |
| Optimal Storage Temperature Range (°C) | 0 °C to 5 °C |
| Conductivity Operational Limits | 0.1 to 5 S m-1* |
| Memory | 2 GB |
| Transmitter Frequency | 401.678 MHz |
| Transmitter Power | 0.5 W/3 dBi peak antenna gain |
* Conductivity Operational Limits can be customized for freshwater applications. Please contact Wildlife Computers to learn more.
** Specification is dependent upon the configuration model. You can see different SPLASH configurations on WildlifeComputers.com