Katia’s transmitter has relayed a few more data points over the past 24 hours. The transmissions indicate that the tag is still attached to Katia and she is behaving normally. Unfortunately these have only been brief messages and no Argos location has been computed. Data show that she is in 21° C water and is diving to depths of 32 meters.
We suspect that one of the reasons of the poor performance of her transmitter may be bio fouling of the transmitter. Although Katias tag is painted with anti-fouling paint to keep epibionts from attaching and impacting performance it is possible that algae or barnacles are impacting the tag. On turtles we have tracked in the past we have seen barnacles growing on transmitters in as little as ten days in the ocean.