Improving Visual Survey Capabilities for Marine Mammal Studies
Abstract
The Navy sponsors research to improve efforts to mitigate interactions between fleet activities and marine mammals. Fundamental information on the occurrence, abundance, and status of marine mammals is typically derived from visual surveys, and data from such surveys are most often used to estimate population abundance, develop predictive relationships between marine mammal distribution and oceanographic conditions, or as ground truth for other marine mammal detection methods. Surveys require human observers to systematically scan the ocean surface for the presence of airbreathing mammals, and they can be conducted from ships, aircraft, or land. For ship- and land-based surveys, powerful, pedestal-mounted, 25 150 big-eye binoculars (Figure 1) are required to accurately identify marine mammals at distances of up to several kilometers from the observing platform. Fujinon 25 150 MTM binoculars are the standard for government and academic marine mammal research, and the long-term goal of this project is to acquire 4 of these binoculars to support funded Department of Defense (DoD) projects. The sole objective of this project is to purchase 4 Fujinon 25 150 MTM binoculars.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 30, 2014
- Accession Number
- ADA617575
Entities
People
- Mark F. Baumgartner
Organizations
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution