Tagging fish provides unparalleled insights into how these creatures behave and respond to different environments, allowing a better understanding of the biology of commercial fish
Cefas, the scientific research and advisory centre working in fisheries management, environmental protection and aquaculture, has collaborated with Andover-based electronics design and manufacturing company, CIL, to produce the G5, a fish Data Storage Tag (DST) that sets new standards for this type of device.
Tagging fish provides unparalleled insights into how these creatures behave and respond to different environments.
This allows a better understanding of the biology of commercial fish and helps to assess how different management options, such as closing an area of a fishery, may help to sustain endangered fish stocks.
To ensure that the normal behaviour of the tagged fish is not disrupted, the size of the tag is critical.
The G5 is only 8mm in diameter, 30mm long and weighs just 1gram in water.
This reduced size allows tagging studies to be carried out on a wider range of species and is likely to open up new fields of research.
Earlier versions of Cefas tags have been used on cod, plaice and rays in the North Sea, the Irish Sea and the English Channel and on penguins, albatross, tuna, elephant seals and sea turtles worldwide including in Japan, America, the Falkland Islands, and Australia.
The latest tag stores records of pressure, which is translated to depth and temperature.
When a tagged fish is caught a reward is paid to the fishermen for the return of the tag and the data stored is downloaded for analysis on Cefas-developed software systems.
Seas around the UK are generally well mapped for depth, tidal range and temperature and so from the information recorded on these tags it is possible to determine the scale and seasonal patterns of fish movements.
Cefas has vast experience in this area and the new Cefas G5, the result of 20 years of research and development, has more memory and increased capability than existing tags.
When designing the new tag, engineers at Cefas were aware that, because of the required power for unit size, the very latest electronics manufacturing techniques would have to be used if the product was going to be a commercial success.
CIL was consulted and worked in close collaboration with Cefas to produce a design that could package the sophisticated electronic circuitry into a circuit board measuring only 19x6.88mm, with the larger parts being central to the PCB as it fits inside a tube.
Using a powerful computer-aided design program, the latest double-sided BGA and surface mount assembly techniques plus innovative flying probe and X-ray testing techniques, CIL produced a viable, proven unit within eight weeks of the initial meeting and production quantities only four weeks after that.
John Boston, managing director of CIL, said: "We were charged with cramming a lot of technology in a small space and I honestly think no other company could have offered this range of service or carried out all aspects of the whole job.
"We were pushing back barriers in a number of areas but the result is a powerful unit with valid production yields".
Mike Challiss, manager of the electronic design team at Cefas, said: "CIL has worked hard to design a PCB layout that met our demanding size constraints while maintaining high production yields.
"CIL's investment in the latest test and manufacturing equipment allied to its high level of experience and expertise in this field makes the company ideally suited to produce a product of this type.
We have been particularly pleased by CIL's responsiveness: they have turned the product around quickly to help us meet our own tight timescales." Developed by the Cefas Applied Technology team, in close conjunction with fisheries scientists, the G5 is designed to meet the needs of all scientists involved with fish behaviour research.
This is a highly innovative, market-leading product and is supplied as part of a complete data storage tagging package.
Cefas supplies tags, readers and software, plus all the technical, scientific and sales support required.
The G5 has considerable advantages over other tags available in terms of both capability and price.
It is much smaller and lighter than previous generations of DSTs and has a much higher memory.
Measuring only 8mm in diameter, 30mm long and with a weight of only 1gram in water, the G5 allows tagged fish to behave as naturally as possible.
It also allows tagging studies to be carried out on a wider range of species, potentially opening up new fields of research.
The tag is capable of taking one million readings over a one-year battery life.
A key feature of the G5 is its independent pressure and temperature settings that provide users with increased programming flexibility.
Cefas is an internationally renowned scientific research and advisory centre working in fisheries management, environmental protection and aquaculture.
The organisation undertakes a wide range of research, advisory, consultancy, monitoring and training activities.
Its customer base includes UK and foreign government departments, international agencies, commercial companies and aid organisations.
Much of the work carried out by Cefas is for the UK government and the European Union where its research and advice is utilised by policy-makers.
In addition, during the past six years an increasingly worldwide client base has been developed.
Cefas has a staff of approximately 550 who are based at three specialist laboratories within the UK.
Facilities include the latest laboratory, tank and aquatic field-based equipment and an ocean-going research vessel.
Cefas is an executive agency of Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs).
