Mapping whales from space

Each year, an estimated 300 000 whales and dolphins are killed as a result of fisheries bycatch. ESA-backed SPACEWHALE integrates analytical techniques and satellite imaging technologies to improve the detection and monitoring of large whales in the open ocean and support wildlife conservation.

Source: WWF

The SPACEWHALE service is a tool aiming at semi-automatically detecting large whales from VHR satellite imagery. This has the ability to improve and extend existing surveying regimes and can serve conservation purposes well beyond monitoring alone. The SPACEWHALE service can benefit to globally distributed non-governmental organisations, academic and government institutions as well as to private companies, who are engaged in global studies or monitoring efforts on large whales, particularly in open ocean environments that are inaccessible to traditional survey methods. The SPACEWHALE program not only makes use of the latest in analytical techniques (deep learning), but also takes advantage of the latest in satellite imaging technologies in order to better identify large whales in the open ocean. This usage of satellite technology has the ability to greatly increase the total global ocean surface area surveyed for large whales.