Australian scientists have use of a new instrument in their arsenal. When it comes to tracking and or counting whales in the Antarctic; the scientists use an infrared camera to track or count the whales by there residual heat signatures. The infrared camera is mounted on an aircraft. This allows the user to fly over the polar ice pack and capture what the naked eye cannot see by itself. First noticed, were the trails of warmer water temperature on the surface in between ice flows.
Nick Gales, a biologist at the Australian Marine Mammal Centre in Hobart said;
"These are quite long trails left when a whale breaks the temperature meniscus at the surface." Nick added, “In dead calm conditions, the animal brings up slightly warmer water from below. We know it's the whales doing this because we've been able to follow some animals that have re-emerged to take another breath."
This breakthrough helps in refining the count of whales that now rely on statistical information and mathematical formulae to factor in the whales that aren’t seen. It is being outlined today as part of the first meeting of the Multi-National Southern Ocean Research Partnership in Sydney, Australia.
Natalie Kelly of the CSIRO led flights from Australia's Casey station. Aboard CASA-212, Kelly charted almost 3000 nautical miles of the survey route last December.
Since 2000, The International Whaling Commission's scientific committee has been unable to agree on the whale numbers, one calculation put them at half a 1991 estimate of 760,000.
“Hundreds of whales were seen in the pack ice survey” said Dr. Gales, “the data is then taken in and will be analyzed and factored into new whale estimates to be brought before the commission in June; we're expecting to come up with lower minke whale numbers."
Once again infrared has found another facet to run through in the scientific world.
Keith Dartez
References:
http://www.theage.com.au
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
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