Monitoring Seals From On High

摘要

Last week, a group of scientists boarded equipment-laden airplanes, braved freezing temperatures, and began a massive accounting of seals in the Arctic. The project, which includes American and Russian scientists, is a 2-year effort aimed at understanding ice-associated seal populations in the Bering and Okhotsk seas. Bearded (Erignathus barbatus), ringed (Phoca hispida), spotted (P largha), and ribbon seals (Histriophoca fasciata) use springtime on the ice to give birth, mate, or molt-which makes it an ideal time to count them. The team plans to use a combination of thermal imaging and digital photographs to conduct their census.