This week, researchers are heading to Svalbard in the Arctic to begin fieldwork to study walrus populations ahead of the next stage in the Walrus from Space project.
This week, researchers are heading to Svalbard in the Arctic to begin fieldwork to study walrus populations ahead of the next stage in the Walrus from Space project.
Scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS), WWF-UK and the Norwegian Polar Institute will do research to validate the walrus counts collected on images from space.
The fieldwork is part of the Walrus from Space research project, a citizen science project to carry out a census of Atlantic and Laptev Sea walrus, using images provided by a satellite imagery company. The project aims to contribute towards the conservation of walrus in the Arctic.
The research team will be based at Ny-Alesund research station for eight days. The team will travel by boat to walrus haul-outs (where they congregate to rest on the land) to count them visually and by using drones. They will compare these to numbers counted from satellite images.
Read more at British Antarctic Survey
Photo Credit: PublicDomainImages via Pixabay
