How do you count giant ? If you ’re flush with money , you might be able to rent out a plane , but normally you ’d have to stand on the shore with a pair of field glasses and skim the H2O . Whilst simple , cheap , and effective , it ’s specify in what information you may harvest from the mammal as they migrate up the seacoast . Thus , in swoop the drones .
Scientists fromNOAA Fisherieshave for thefirst timeemployed unmanned airy vehicle to avail them count and supervise the white-haired hulk as they swim from their birthing grounds in Baja California , Mexico , up to the Arctic where they drop their summertime feeding . With drones hover above the heavyweight as they perish by during their epic migration , scientists in the DoS of California are able-bodied not only to count , but also to estimate the size of the mega mammals .
“ By studying the body condition of female , we hope to associate the dots between conditions in the Arctic one year and calf production the next , ” explainedJohn Durban , a marine life scientist from NOAA Fisheries . “ Ultimately , we ’re seek to understand how environmental stipulation impact the reproductive achiever of the population . ”
The hexacopter come in to land . deferred payment : NOAA
Nearly run to extinction during the last century , the eastern gray whale ( Eschrichtius robustus ) universe has recovered to around 20,000 individuals . Now that their main threat of hunting has largely been stopped , scientists are knifelike to understand what other factors mold the ups and down observed in their numbers .
One means of doing this is to count how many mothers and calf pass by California on their way up to the parky waters of the Arctic . Whilst this gives some indicant of the population ’s health , it ’s only a crude measure and does n’t provide the full picture . By estimate the size of it of the female , however , the scientists are capable to judge how much blubber she ’s packing , and thus how well she launch the summertime before .
By hovering the radio-controlled aircraft at the same height above each pair of female parent and sura , at least 36 meters ( 120 feet ) to avoid disturbing them , the researchers can then analyse in the lab the look-alike take of the whales and calculate the distance and girth of the mammals down to a few centimetre . “ We ca n’t put a gray heavyweight on a scale , but we can utilise aeriform images to analyse their body condition — essentially , how fat or penny-pinching they are , ” sound out Durban .
They were able-bodied to find 60 mother and calf pairs over the season , and hope that the success of this analysis could be applied to other large hulk and how the environment puts an upper limit on their universe growth . understand this will help the scientist determine what are normal population fluctuations , and what more serious declines look like .
