Automated detection, tracking, and counting of gray whales

Kevin Sullivan; Mark Fennell; Wayne Perryman; David Weller

doi:10.1117/12.2567187

23 April 2020 Automated detection, tracking, and counting of gray whales

Kevin Sullivan, Mark Fennell, Wayne Perryman, David Weller

Proceedings Volume 11409, Thermosense: Thermal Infrared Applications XLII; 1140906 (2020) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2567187
Event: SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing, 2020, Online Only

Abstract

Gray whales in the eastern North Pacific migrate annually between summer feeding areas in the Arctic to wintering areas off Baja California, Mexico. The abundance of this whale population has been documented by shore-based counts in central California conducted by human observers searching for and recording whale sightings during the southbound migration. Here, we describe a new semi-automated system for conducting gray whale counts, and compare such to the human observer based system. This new system consists of infrared cameras which continuously monitor a fixed field of view of the ocean, automated detection software for detecting whale blows, whale-blow verification software, and counting software which estimates the number of whales that have passed by the observation station. This technology is currently being considered to support naval, oil and gas, and merchant marine operations involving marine mammals.

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

Kevin Sullivan, Mark Fennell, Wayne Perryman, and David Weller "Automated detection, tracking, and counting of gray whales", Proc. SPIE 11409, Thermosense: Thermal Infrared Applications XLII, 1140906 (23 April 2020); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2567187

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