Counting whales from space: scientists and engineers plan hi-tech effort

[Judi Lynn]

New England Aquarium partners with local firm
Project could help work to save endangered right whales

Associated Press in Boston

Sun 5 Jan 2020 13.40 EST

An aquarium and an engineering firm in Massachusetts are working on a project to better protect whales – by monitoring them from space.

The New England Aquarium, based in Boston, and Draper, a firm based in nearby Cambridge, say new and higher-tech solutions are needed in order to protect whales from extinction. So they are using data from sources such as satellites, sonar and radar to keep a closer eye on how many whales are in the ocean.

A project involving complex data and surveillance has an easy to understand name: Counting Whales From Space. But John Irvine, chief scientist for data analytics at Draper, said that was the only simple thing about the project.

“If whales are moving out of one area and into another,” Irving said, “what’s the reason for that? Is it due to ocean warming? Is it changes in commercial shipping lanes? These are all questions we’ll be able to start answering once we have the data.”

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/05/counting-whales-from-space-new-england-aquarium-draper

[lapfog_1]

1. you could always just count them by hand