Conservation of aquatic species requires in-depth understanding of their movement and behavior and their interactions with man-made hydraulic structures. Acoustic telemetry is a primary method to remotely track in 3 dimensions (3D) aquatic animals implanted with transmitters. The transmitter’s weight and size are the major limiting factors because the transmitter should not affect the animals’ natural behavior. Here, we present an acoustic micro-transmitter that weighs 0.08 g in air, only 1/3 that of existing technologies. The transmitter offers a source level of 148 dB (reference: 1 μPa at 1 m) and a service life of 30 days at a 5-s transmission rate. Nearly 100% of tagged fish were detected in field studies, demonstrating the viability of this technology for studying species of early life stages. Information resulting from the use of this technology provides valuable insight for ecological and environmental policy making and resource management worldwide.

保护水生物种需要深入了解它们的运动和行为，以及它们与人造水力结构的相互作用。声学遥测是一种远程跟踪植入了发射器的3维（3D）水生动物的主要方法。发射器的重量和尺寸是主要的限制因素，因为发射器不应影响动物的自然行为。在这里，我们介绍了一种声学微型发射器，该微型发射器在空气中的重量为0.08 g，仅为现有技术的1/3。发射器的源电平为148 dB（参考值：1 m时为1μPa），在5 s传输速率下的使用寿命为30天。在田间研究中检测到近100％的带标签鱼，证明了该技术在研究早期生命阶段中的可行性。