A walrus detective is recruited in a battle to save marine mammals from the reality of the climate crisis. What exactly does this glorious title entail?
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) are the best members of the public ‘walrus detectives’ when it comes to taking a little part in citizen science by counting walruses from satellite images taken from space.
The Walrus from Space project aims to take five years, in collaboration with the Norwegian Institute of Polar Research, with support from Arctic scientists from both WWF-UK and BAS. The ultimate goal is to conduct a full census of the Atlantic walrus and the walrus walrus, to precisely investigate and understand what the future holds for this species in the midst of climate change.
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The Arctic is warming three times faster than the global average, affecting the sea ice on which walruses rely. Summer Arctic sea ice is shrinking by 12.6% every decade thanks to a warming planet.
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“The walrus is an iconic species of the Arctic. Walruses are an important species in the Arctic marine ecosystem and are of great importance and importance to the people of the Arctic. They are really living on the front lines of the climate crisis,” Rod Downey, Polar Chief Advisor for WWF UK, said in the project video. “What we are trying to do is better understand how walruses are responding to the climate crisis now, and how they will respond in a climate-changed future.
“This is very difficult to do because the Arctic is vast and a difficult place for scientists to work. We know that walruses can be disturbed very easily by human presence.” That’s why we’ve partnered with a satellite imagery provider to cover vast swaths of the hundreds of places where walruses cross the North Pole.We can capture them through imagery from space.One of the biggest advantages of this project is to be completely non-invasive to the walrus itself.
The first images were collected by a team based at the Ny-Ålesund Institute in Svalbard, Norway. There, the team downloaded very high-resolution (VHR) satellite images of walrus hauls in the Arctic and saw some numbers on the ground via boat. Visit and drone imagery. More images will be taken over the next five years. These images are what scientists need to investigate.
Already, 11,000 people around the world have become Walrus Detectives, helping complete Phase 1 of identifying signs of the presence of walruses in the aforementioned image. About 1.5 million satellite images have been retrieved so far.
Phase 2 has now started and is seeking further public support. This phase distinguishes the walruses from each other and outlines them in the image.
To participate in this mission, you can register for the Walrus from Space scheme on the WWF website.
