Internet of Seals: Vodafone Connects Marine Mammals To IoT

Mickeycaskill writes: Researchers in Scotland claim to be the first to connect marine mammals to the Internet of Things (IoT) as part of a study into declining populations of harbor seals in the north and east of the country. Several seals in Orkney, an archipelago off the north cost, will be tagged and their behavior monitored by scientists at the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) at the University of St Andrews. The data is transmitted using Vodafone's M2M network and the tags are designed to simply fall off when seals molt. Researchers say the use of cellular networks will greatly improve their data gathering capabilities. The data collected will be used to help form Scottish marine policy in areas such as offshore wind farms and unexplained seal deaths.

Re:

[K. S. Kyosuke]

And those are just my top 60 reasons! I've got a lot more than just those.

Sounds like you have countably many reasons.

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[viperidaenz]

Because they're connected via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] ?

Kiss from a deadly rose

[Sax Russell 5449D29A]

Great, now that seals have insecure IoT devices all over them, how long will it be until polar bears learn how to track them?

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[Hognoxious]

Like building a big enough deep fat fryer?

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[phantomfive]

Yeah, but this is better. It's hackable. From my arm-chair.

I have a documentary title for sale

[Applehu Akbar]

The Seventh Seal

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Easy Fix

[Jim Sadler]

Our seas need a rest from fishing and we need to be feeding many species due to the destruction of their food sources. Give these critters a place to live and breed and a good food supply and they will prosper. We have simply over- used the Atlantic to the point that all species are in danger.

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[edittard]

You mean the "newspaper" that used to have tits in it? They'd probably know the difference between "cost" and "coast" and capitalize place names derived from compass directions appropriately.

Lost Privacy

[rmist]

Well seals, there goes your privacy as well as your sex life.

Johnny Mnemonic

[xarragon]

My first thought when I saw this headline was the 1995 B-grade sci-fi movie "Johnny Mnemonic": http://www.imdb.com/title/tt01... [imdb.com]

It features a cyber-augmented dolphin, allegedly able to "cut through hard encryption like butter". At this point, it all falls into place. This is the start of a long-term plan for the government to finally crack the iPhones. And encryption. All of it. Everywhere. The TRANSLTR computer from Dan Brown's "Digital Fortress" just wasn't the right solution. But Internet of Things, cybernetics and magic animals (unicorns, dolphins etc.)? It can not fail!

So long and...

[catbertscousin]

Thanks for all the fish?

New PETA protest

[jmcwork]

"Stop seal hacking"