A bstract Several methods have been used to identify erroneous animal locations based on Argos satellite data. Using 15,987 satellite locations for 37 gray seals ( Haliockoerus grypus ), we tested a three‐stage filtering algorithm designed to address shortcomings of other filters. In stage 1, for each location, four rates of travel were calculated—the rate to each of the two previous locations and the two subsequent locations....