Unlocking the potential of aquatic animal telemetry research to advance management and conservation: Barriers and a blueprint for Great Britain and Ireland

Aquatic animal telemetry research can provide important knowledge for how populations, anthropogenic pressures and, indeed, entire ecosystems are managed. However, the true scale, extent and impact in Britain and Ireland is poorly understood. We surveyed 53 researchers about past and ongoing projects to characterize the British and Irish telemetry landscape and identify barriers to impact. A wide diversity of species (n = 63) have been studied, with Atlantic salmon being the most, while fish passage and hydropower were the most researched anthropogenic pressures. Seventy-three percent of respondents reported personal experiences influencing management and policy decisions. However, we found barriers to telemetry-derived knowledge uptake (e.g. technological limitations) while early engagement and effective communication with policy actors facilitated uptake. Given these findings we make three recommendations: consolidate the research community into coordinated hub, improve data sharing processes, and establish a permanent and interoperable acoustic telemetry receiver array. If delivered, they would represent a step-change in how telemetry-derived knowledge is both gathered and used to provide evidence-based management and conservation of British and Irish aquatic biodiversity and ecosystems.