Seal sizes and habitat conditions assessed from aerial photography and video analysis

• Published in: ICES Journal of Marine Science
• Main Authors: Estep, Kenneth W., MacIntyre, Ferren, Noji, Thomad T., Stensholt, Boonchai, Øritsland, Torger
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 1994
• Subjects: Articles; Greenland; Greenland Sea
• Online Access: http://icesjms.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/51/3/253; https://doi.org/10.1006/jmsc.1994.1026

Image analysis was used to assess ice conditions and sizes seals in still-camera and video images automatically, collected during an exploratory survey conducted in the West Ice (Greenland Sea) in spring 1990, to determine the feasibility of using these techniques to examine the distribution of breeding harp and hooded seals and the environment conditions under which seals are found. Images from a Sony CCD video camera and a still-photo aerial camera provided excellent resolutions, while a Dage-MTI camera proved to be totally inadequate, due to excessive lag and auto-iris failure. Use of image analysis in future surveys will allows large amounts of data, including environmental conditions, seals sizes, and automatically prepared seal distribution maps, to be collected quickly from video and still-camera surveys. It is expected that the application of these techniques to future surveys will increase the understanding of seal populations and their relationship to their environment.