Pitot-Type Waterflow Sensor Logger for Relative Waterflow Velocity Measurement of a Sea Turtle

This study presents a waterflow sensor logger for sea turtles. Many sensors have been attached to wild animals via the biologging method for animal ecological analysis. However, it is not easy to measure the relative waterflow velocity of marine animals with a conventional sensor due to marine debris and algae. Furthermore, there are limited examples of measurements for sea turtles. Here, we proposed a Pitot-type waterflow sensor logger. The sensor logger achieves both resistance to algae and marine debris and pressure resistance because of the Pitot-type waterflow sensor structure. Attaching the sensor logger to a sea turtle’s carapace will make long-term velocity measurement possible. The fabricated sensor logger responded stably to waterflow and measured actual sea turtle’s swimming as waterflow velocity.