TAG Data Incorporated into new Google Earth

The TAG team collaborated with Google to create a unique "Animal Tracking" layer in the latest version of Google Earth, which features an interactive, three-dimensional ocean. The most exciting aspect of this is that our tagging data will be made available to a huge audience, in the powerful but user-friendly Google Earth interface.



When users locate a tagged animal on the globe, they can click it to bring up the "content bubble" (on the right in the photo above). There they can learn more about the particular specimen that made the track, as well as seeing the track itself on the globe or following along with it, seeing the ocean from the animal's point of view. They can also learn more about that species in general, and about the type of tag with which the animal was tagged.



The Google Earth interface will play an increasingly important role in our work, as we will begin using it to access and explore tracking data -- from tunas as well as a variety of other open ocean animals being studied by collaborators around the world. This will be the centerpiece of our new Global Tagging of Pelagic Predators website, which launched to the public today.

To learn more about the new Ocean features of Google Earth, go to http://earth.google.com/ocean/, where you can download the latest version and start exploring the oceans in a whole new way!