As ocean sentinels, cetacean strandings serve as early warning signals, alerting conservation managers to concerns for ocean, animal, and human health (e.g., harmful algal blooms, disease, underwater noise trauma). They also allow insights into local cetacean population, density, distribution and mortality, and thus offer significant conservation value for the assessment of ecosystems. Reports of strandings are on the rise, as are the range of evolving and intensifying human induced threats, increasing the need for strandings surveillance. However, stranding networks (programmes for monitoring and coordinating a ground response and investigation of local strandings) are sparse to non-existent within remote coastal areas. Given the importance of strandings for informing cetacean conservation, there is a clear need for new, scalable tools to bridge this monitoring gap.
Very high-resolution (VHR) optical satellites (like the ones behind Google Earth) can capture imagery anywhere on Earth. Satellites have been successfully applied to detect and count live cetaceans and other wildlife species (e.g., elephant, polar bear, walruses) and now offer strong potential to enhance our understanding of stranding patterns. This talk will explore how satellites are giving new insights for cetacean conservation.
In recent years, considerable effort has been made to study live cetaceans using satellite imagery; by comparison, only four studies have focused on cetacean strandings. This innovative approach has proven effective for detecting and counting large-bodied stranded whale species (>12 m), yet mass strandings (two or more animals, excluding mother calf pairs) are predominantly smaller-sized odontocetes (~1-6 m, toothed whale and dolphin species). Therefore, a crucial question for VHR satellites to be useful for monitoring strandings globally, is just how small a cetacean can we detect from space?
In addition, scaling up the use of VHR optical satellite imagery is limited by cloud cover. So just where around the world will be most suitable for investment in satellite monitoring programmes? And can we bypass cloud and spy on whales in the dark? Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites use microwave radiation to image Earth in cloud and darkness. Is SAR the key to achieving timely emergency responses to unfolding stranding events?
Recognising the greatest value of satellites will be their application to remote regions, it will be important to develop methods that help confirm what we are seeing are actually whales. Satellites capture information beyond what the human eye can see, so could spectral information hold hidden clues that could help us validate detections remotely and ultimately scale this tool globally?
Join us to found out the answers to these questions and more, and to meet the International Whaling Commission ‘Using Satellites to Study Whales’ group, who are aiming to increase accessibility of this tool and advance this technology to reshape our understanding of cetaceans.
Together, VHR optical and SAR satellites, have potential to enhance stranding monitoring in hard-to-reach coastal areas with limited resources, and help stranding managers respond rapidly to unfolding stranding events to gather time-sensitive data on stranding causes and local ocean health.
About the Speaker
Penny Clarke is a world-leading expert in studying whales from space. Fresh from her PhD with the British Antarctic Survey and the University of Edinburgh, she works at the intersection of remote sensing, artificial intelligence, and marine conservation. Internationally recognised for her ‘whales from space’ research, Penny co-leads a global network of over 100 scientists endorsed by the International Whaling Commission, advancing non-invasive approaches to whale conservation. She has supported numerous polar wildlife projects, from drone-based studies of humpback whale body condition to satellite searches for whales in remote Antarctic bays.
Penny’s PhD focused on using very high-resolution satellites to monitor whale and dolphin strandings in remote and resource-limited regions. Her work developed frameworks, tools, and data standards to detect and validate stranded cetaceans using optical and synthetic aperture radar satellite imagery, complementing conventional ground and aerial surveys.
