By Kevin Majoros
In 2015, a team from Ocean Alliance travelled to Puerto Pirámides, Argentina on an expedition to collect exhaled breath concentrate from whales, photogrammetry, and whale identification.
It marked the first time in the long history of Ocean Alliance, that an expedition was led by a modified consumer drone to gather valuable biological information on whales.
The thought process and initial sea trials behind their drone work began years earlier when they were conducting research on sperm whales in the Gulf of Mexico. Ocean Alliance Founder, Dr Roger Payne, was extracting a biopsy dart and found himself covered in biological material when the whale exhaled.
Whale blow contains DNA, stress and pregnancy hormones, microbiomes and potentially many other biological indicators of the whale’s health and ecology. The success of the SnotBot drone program has led Ocean Alliance to new heights in the field of marine mammal science and drones have become key components in whale research programs around the world.
SnotBot Creates Change in Marine Mammal Science Data Collection
Launched in 1971, Ocean Alliance’s mission is to protect whales and their ocean environment through research, scientific collaboration, public education, and the arts.
Decades of ground-breaking research on whale sounds, marine pollution and marine mammal science have been presented to the public through documentaries and education programs.
Recognizing the impact that the emerging field of drone technology could have on the future conservation of marine mammals, they created the Drones for Whale Research program.
Early whale research by Ocean Alliance was completed on their vessel Odyssey with data collection focused on toxicology from tissue biopsies extracted by a purpose-made dart. The work was expensive, difficult, and slow-moving along with the vessel needing to be in close proximity to the whale.
SnotBot can travel 40 to 50 knots and is operational from 20 meters to two miles from the whale. Their success in SnotBot’s pilot period was due in part to Ocean Alliance CEO, Iain Kerr, who is a remote control helicopter hobbyist.
As more resources were added to the SnotBot program, master prototype engineer John Graham was brought on board as the robotics manager.
With their conservation partner, Parley, they have adapted drones to be cost-effective, scalable, adaptable, and non-invasive tools in furthering cetacean science and conservation.
The Worldwide Impact of SnotBot
Five years ago, no one could have forecasted the success and impact of the data streams resulting from the SnotBot program. Ocean Alliance Science Manager, Andy Rogan, cites a few of the ways that SnotBot has impacted marine mammal science.
Advocacy
“The imagery and bird’s eye shots that these drones are collecting are enabling us to reach more people and create support for marine mammal conservation. The communications potential is an unanticipated success of the program.”
Cost Savings
“The tools in our Drones for Whale Research program are much cheaper than previous conventional whale research tools. This means that more organizations in developing countries will be able to afford the equipment needed to further their own whale research.”
DNA, microbiomes and hormones
“Collecting blow samples and sending them to labs has had a really high probability of success and we already knew how important this data is for wildlife managers. Separating the whale hormones from the sea sample is the golden ticket and we are still working on perfecting that process.”
Ocean Alliance’s Drones for Whale Research Program
The success of SnotBot led to the creation of the Drones for Whale Research program and Ocean Alliance is building and developing prototypes to explore different applications for the drones.
Their drone expeditions have taken them to far-reaching whale sites such as Gabon, the Gulf of California, the Dominican Republic, the Gulf of Maine, and Southeast Alaska.
To accomplish their photogrammetry work, they have adapted a drone adding a LIDAR array which uses drone trigonometry to measure the size of whales and by extension, their health.
EarBot is a waterproof drone designed to land on the ocean surface and record whale song using underwater microphones.
In partnership with FLIR Systems, they have developed a program around using infrared light to collect data that a conventional visible-light camera could not detect.
“These drones are going to change whale research and provide local solutions for the health of whales,” says Rogan. “The prototypes that we are developing are helping to facilitate data collection for other marine science organizations.”
A Data Collection Opportunity for Ocean Alliance During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Ocean Alliance was presented a small window of opportunity during the shutdowns that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Headquartered in Gloucester, Massachusetts, they have quick access to the Gulf of Maine which is one of several major humpback whale feeding areas in the North Atlantic Ocean.
The shutdowns in March due to the COVID-19 virus led to decreased boat traffic in the Gulf of Maine. Using hydrophone technology, Ocean Alliance began capturing whale song recordings to analyze the impact on the whales.
“Whales live in a world of sound – communicating, finding prey, detecting predators – they are navigating through that world with the constant presence of noise pollution generated by boats and industry,” Rogan says.
The data collected will help create hypotheses on whale communication and stress levels as it pertains to noise pollution.
“We had a recording come in yesterday where the whale sounds are extraordinary. Then a single boat came through changing the acoustic environment and the whale became background noise,” says Rogan. “We will compare our data from this small window with another data set to theorize if whales adapt to changing levels of sound. What we have collected so far has been very interesting.”
Visit Ocean Alliance online
Follow Ocean Alliance and SnotBot on Instagram
This piece was prepared online by Panuruji Kenta, Publisher, SEVENSEAS Media