Case Study: Sea Mammal Research Unit safeguards seal populations with Vodafone Global Enterprise M2M

Sea Mammal Research Unit - Customer Case Study

The Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) at the University of St Andrews researches marine mammals and advises on conservation, but faced a sharp decline in UK harbour seal populations—up to 90% in some areas over 10 years. To better track seal movement and behavior, SMRU needed a reliable way to collect data from tagged seals across different regions, and turned to Vodafone Global Enterprise and its M2M technology.

Vodafone Global Enterprise provided a global managed M2M solution using smart marine tags connected to Vodafone’s global M2M platform. The lightweight tags can operate at depths of up to 200 metres and send location, dive, and environmental data directly to SMRU for analysis. The solution gave SMRU a single system to standardize tags worldwide, remotely manage SIMs from one PC, expand global research coverage, and avoid unexpected roaming charges when seals move across borders.

Sea Mammal Research Unit

Bernie McConnell

Deputy Director