Thousands of commercial and endangered marine species will be tagged in a Canadian-led project to help improve fishing practices and better understand ocean threats.

Scientists will implant electronic tags like those used at supermarket checkouts into salmon, tuna, sharks, penguins and polar bears to track the animals' movements.

Halifax researcher Ron O'Dor says a new fish-tagging program could revolutionize fisheries management.
(Jack Julian/CBC)

"In my opinion, most of the failures in fisheries management over the last few decades have resulted from a failure to understand that these animals move," said Ron O'Dor, head of the Ocean Tracking Network at Dalhousie University in Halifax. "This system has the potential to revolutionize the way fisheries are managed."

Hypodermic needles like those that deliver shots are used to implant the vitamin-sized tag into the animal, he said. A rubber washer holds the tag in place.

The network will use rings of sea-bed sensors around every continent.  About 35 international scientists are meeting at Dalhousie over the next three days to decide how the network could operate.

The Canadian-designed sensors resemble white-and-orange kitchen garbage cans. The sensors will sit on the ocean floor and record the tags as fish swim by.

There is already a 1,500-kilometre string of sensors used to track salmon along the entire coast of British Columbia, but O'Dor imagines using up to one million tags.

Animal tracking data could also be used to designate new marine protected areas. Since the tags also measure temperature, scientists can monitor the effects of climate change.

The $150-million project is scheduled to be ready within five years. O'Dor said his team is still waiting to secure $32 million in funding from the federal government.