Space Satellites Used to Count Whale Populations
- 10 years ago
Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey are using a new technique for keeping track of and counting whale population numbers using a space satellite.
Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey are trying out a new technique for keeping track of and counting whale population numbers using a space satellite.
High resolution pictures taken by the satellite were analyzed by image processing software that can pick up on the presence of whales either on or just below the surface of the ocean.
To test the technology, a group of southern right whales were counted off the coast of Argentina in the Golfo Nuevo.
The image processing system located 90 percent of the whales that were found by a manual search, with very few misidentifications.
Peter Fretwell from the British Antarctic Survey is quoted as saying: "as the resolution of the satellites increases and our image analysis improves, we should be able to monitor many more species and in other types of location. It should be possible to do total population counts, and in the future track the trajectory of those populations."
Current methods of counting whales happen from shore, in a boat, or an airplane, but these are time consuming, expensive and not very accurate.
Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey are trying out a new technique for keeping track of and counting whale population numbers using a space satellite.
High resolution pictures taken by the satellite were analyzed by image processing software that can pick up on the presence of whales either on or just below the surface of the ocean.
To test the technology, a group of southern right whales were counted off the coast of Argentina in the Golfo Nuevo.
The image processing system located 90 percent of the whales that were found by a manual search, with very few misidentifications.
Peter Fretwell from the British Antarctic Survey is quoted as saying: "as the resolution of the satellites increases and our image analysis improves, we should be able to monitor many more species and in other types of location. It should be possible to do total population counts, and in the future track the trajectory of those populations."
Current methods of counting whales happen from shore, in a boat, or an airplane, but these are time consuming, expensive and not very accurate.