Center of Expertise in Marine Mammalogy

Scientific Research Report
2015-2017

Table of Contents

• Complete Text
• Introduction
• Using aerial infrared images to count ringed seals on ice
• The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV)
• 2017: A Marine Mammal Odyssey, Eh!
• Mark-recapture analysis from long-term study on Sable Island identifies changes in demographic rates in northwest Atlantic Grey Seals
• OTN – Using grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) as bioprobes to estimate phytoplankton biomass
• Northwest Atlantic International Sightings Survey (NAISS) of Marine Megafauna on the Continental Shelf From Northern Labrador to the Bay of Fundy
• Monitoring Movements of Whelping Seals on Drifting Pack Ice
• Marine Mammal Genomics Research in the Central and Arctic Region
• OTN and predator-prey interactions
• Listening in on the Deep: Passive Acoustic Monitoring of Whales off Nova Scotia
• Sharing Meals Keeps Killer Whale Families Together: Provisioning relatives maintains long-term social bonds and helps pass on shared genes
• New developments in the use of fatty acids to determine marine mammal diets
• More than a mouthful – unlocking bowhead whale foraging and reproductive histories from baleen
• Observing walrus behaviour at haulout sites in quasi real-time
• Moving towards automated counting
• References

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV)

Marianne Marcoux

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), (also called unmanned aircraft systems or drones) have been increasingly used in the study of wildlife populations. They offer a safer, more cost-effective, and quieter alternative to traditional research methods. For marine mammals, the use of UAVs is promising in several aspects of their research such as the development of method to assess the size and the structure of populations, as well as for making direct observation of behaviour.

For several populations of marine mammals in Canada, we assess the size of the population by directly counting the animals from an aircraft or by counting animals on photographs taken from an aircraft. These methods are costly and can be dangerous. UAVs equipped with a camera offers a new platform to perform population assessment at a lower cost in a safer way. While UAVs don’t fly as fast and for as long as a small aircraft, current research focuses on the feasibility of using UAVs to assess population size. In addition, methods for counting animals in photographs are being improved.

In order to manage a population of marine mammals, it is important to know the proportion of males and females in the population as well as the proportion of adults and non-adults. This information can be gathered non-invasively using photographs taken from a UAV. For example, male and female narwhals can be distinguished by the presence of tusks on males (the tusk can be easily seen on aerial photos). We use videos or photos taken from UAVs to determine the proportion of males in the population. Similarly, the proportion of calves can be assessed from the videos and photos, which provide important information about the health of narwhal population.

Videos and cameras attached to UAVs can also be used to observe marine mammal behaviour from a view point that was previously unaccessible and can improve our understanding of marine mammals. For example, using UAV videography, we were able to document for the first time that narwhals use their tusks to feed on small fish at the surface. With this feeding method, narwhals were observed using their tusks to stun a fish and direct it to their mouth. We are also using UAV videography to link behavioural observations with underwater sound recordings. Therefore, we can gain a better understanding of animals’ communication behaviour.