Posted on 11/04/2018 8:46:32 AM PST by ETL
Counting whales has never been easy—boats, even planes, can travel limited distances, and catching site of these giant cetaceans is hit or miss. Now, researchers at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in Cambridge have demonstrated that they can tally at least four different species using satellite images taken 600 kilometers above the ocean.
Previously, satellite cameras were of no use in whale spotting. Their resolution, which maxed out at 46 centimeters, made most whales look like undistinguishable blobs. But the new privately owned WorldView-3 satellite, which has a resolution of 31 centimeters, enabled BAS graduate student Hannah Cubaynes to count 200 whales across 4230 square kilometers of ocean, she and her colleagues reported last week in Marine Mammal Science.
Cubaynes started with seven images from four areas across the world known to exclusively host southern right whales, fin whales, humpback whales, or gray whales at certain times of year. “Oh my God,” was her first reaction, because the whales were so easy to see. Nearly half of her identifications were definitive, and the whales looked different enough from space that she expects to be able to tell species apart should they occur together in subsequent images.
Next, researchers will use the images to develop a computer program that can pick out probable whales, the identification of which will be confirmed by experts. Cubaynes says the system will aid conservation efforts by better revealing where whales go and how many there are. But to do so, she first has to figure out how to account for wind, sun glare, and whales that are at angles to the surface or moving and thus not fully visible. And like aerial and ship surveys, satellite surveys will still be hampered by bad weather.
I’m not buying that an improvement from 46 to 31 cm resolution per pixel made this possible. That’s a fairly minor change.
Imagine what they can see with the “good” cameras.
And since this is not a naturally tenable position for a whale, this poor innocent creature had very little time to come to terms with its identity as a whale before it then had to come to terms with not being a whale any more.
This is a complete record of its thoughts from the moment it began its life till the moment it ended it.
Ah … ! What’s happening? it thought.
Er, excuse me, who am I?
Hello?
Why am I here? What’s my purpose in life?
What do I mean by who am I?
Calm down, get a grip now … oh! this is an interesting sensation, what is it? It’s a sort of … yawning, tingling sensation in my … my … well I suppose I’d better start finding names for things if I want to make any headway in what for the sake of what I shall call an argument I shall call the world, so let’s call it my stomach.
Good. Ooooh, it’s getting quite strong. And hey, what’s about this whistling roaring sound going past what I’m suddenly going to call my head? Perhaps I can call that … wind! Is that a good name? It’ll do … perhaps I can find a better name for it later when I’ve found out what it’s for. It must be something very important because there certainly seems to be a hell of a lot of it. Hey! What’s this thing? This … let’s call it a tail – yeah, tail. Hey! I can can really thrash it about pretty good can’t I? Wow! Wow! That feels great! Doesn’t seem to achieve very much but I’ll probably find out what it’s for later on. Now – have I built up any coherent picture of things yet?
No.
Never mind, hey, this is really exciting, so much to find out about, so much to look forward to, I’m quite dizzy with anticipation …
Or is it the wind?
There really is a lot of that now isn’t it?
And wow! Hey! What’s this thing suddenly coming towards me very fast? Very very fast. So big and flat and round, it needs a big wide sounding name like … ow … ound … round … ground! That’s it! That’s a good name – ground!
I wonder if it will be friends with me?
And the rest, after a sudden wet thud, was silence.
Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was Oh no, not again. Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the universe than we do now.”
Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
I will say that one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen was on a flight from CA to HI. After crossing Catalina Island (also cool from above!) I saw a group of whales below. Really neat!
And it’s another reason I am a Land Lubber; there are too many things in the Ocean that see me as FOOD! ;)
In the late 60s and early 70s we could look down from 60-70 miles on some mil type in Russia, see what he was reading, read along with him, and count the number of hairs on his balding head ...
Everything in the ocean sees you as food.
Some have the courtesy to wait until you are already dead....
Anything on Earth can be spotted from space (low Earth orbit).
I know! At least on land I have a bit of a fighting chance! ;)
Pretty wild...
If only Capt. Ahab had this technology!
on active duty in the 1970’s we sat 15 miles off the coast of Havana, Cuba and watched people walk on the beach, we could see them well enough to post a wanted poster in the post office, at 1:00 am, no moon, pitch black.
we sat 15 miles off the coast of Havana, Cuba ..........You had to be high up to go beyond the LOS?
This was taken at 31cm. A good sensor is not more than 10cm, and a few in the mm range.
My son and I were at Pt. Reyes in California some years back. The steps on the walk down to the lighthouse go alongside a rock cliff. There were several whales in the water directly below us up against the cliff. It was amazing to see them just resting there and viewed from above.
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