Seminar on Drones and Whales

Whale fluke.\Photo by Dennis White.

The Hatfield Marine Science Center’s Thursday research seminar series continues online.  Next up is a talk on whales and drones, coming up Thursday, Dec. 2, at 3:30 p.m.  The event is free and open to the public.

The speaker is KC (Kevin) Bierlich, a postdoctoral scholar in the Geospatial Ecology of Marine Megafauna (GEMM) Lab, with the Marine Mammal Institute of Oregon State University, based at the HMSC.  His topic: “Incorporating uncertainty associated with drone-based measurements to better monitor the health of whales.”

As he summarizes his subject:

“The morphology and body condition of an animal is one of the most fundamental factors affecting its habitat use and foraging performance, and can reflect details of its current health, likelihood of survival, and potential reproductive success. Collecting accurate morphological measurements of individuals is often essential for monitoring populations and has profound implications for conservation and management. Increasingly, drone-based photogrammetry has provided great opportunity for obtaining morphometric measurements of large marine vertebrates, such as whales. However, a broad range of drones, sensors, and altimeters are being applied for these purposes, and there is no unified way to predict photogrammetric uncertainty across this methodological spectrum. In this seminar, I will discuss how incorporating uncertainty associated with drone-based morphological and body condition measurements will increase interoperability amongst researchers and help facilitate comparison of results across studies to better monitor the health of individuals and population.”

To register for this event, go here.

Dial-In Information:  +1-971-247-1195 US Meeting ID: 945 5573 1151