Abstract:
Monitoring whales in remote regions is important for their conservation, using traditional survey platforms (boat and plane) is logistically difficult. The use of very high-resolution satellite imagery to survey whales, particularly in remote regions, is gaining interest and momentum. However, development is hindered by the lack of automated systems to detect whales. Such a system requires an open source library containing examples of whales and confounding features in satellite imagery. Here we present such a database, created by surveying 6,300 km2 of satellite imagery in various regions across the globe, which allowed us to detect 633 whale objects and 120 confounding features.
Funding was provided from a BAS Innovation Voucher.
Keywords:
Cetacean, computer vision, machine learning, remote sensing, training data, very high-resolution satellite imagery, whale
Cubaynes, H., & Fretwell, P. (2021). Whales from Space Database (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/c1afe32c-493c-4dc7-af9f-649593b97b2c
| Access Constraints: | None. |
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| Use Constraints: | Data released under Open Government Licence V3.0: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/. Imagery courtesy of Maxar Technologies. |
| Creation Date: | 2021-04-08 |
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| Dataset Progress: | Complete |
| Dataset Language: | English |
| ISO Topic Categories: |
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| Parameters: |
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| Personnel: | |
| Name | UK PDC |
| Role(s) | Metadata Author |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Dr Hannah C Cubaynes |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | Scott Polar Research Institute |
| Name | Mr Peter T Fretwell |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Parent Dataset: | N/A |
| Reference: | Cubaynes, H.C., Fretwell, P.T. Whales from space dataset, an annotated satellite image dataset of whales for training machine learning models. Sci Data 9, 245 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01377-4. Cubaynes, H.C., Fretwell P.T., Bamford C., Gerrish L. and Jackson J.A. (2019) Whales from space: Four mysticete species described using new VHR satellite imagery. Marine Mammal Science, Volume 35, Issue 2 p. 466-491. https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.12544. |
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| Quality: | Used Cubaynes et al. 2019 to assign a confidence level to the whale-objects detected and listed in the database. | |
| Lineage: | The satellite images were acquired by very high-resolution satellites (WorldView-3, WorldView-2, GeoEye-1, Quickbird-2), using the following criteria: less than 20% cloud cover, calm sea state (i.e. no white caps and low swell), and where it was known that only one species would be present at the time of image acquisition. Whales were annotated using Cubaynes et al. criteria and method, and were assigned a confidence level (Definite, Probable, or Possible). For further details see https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01377-4. For further details of TEMPORAL and SPATIAL COVERAGE see the file 'WhaleFromSpace_Coverage.csv' in the GET DATA link of this record. |
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| Temporal Coverage: | |
|---|---|
| Start Date | 2006-08-12 |
| End Date | 2017-02-20 |
| Spatial Coverage: | |
| Latitude | |
| Southernmost | -34.39369 |
| Northernmost | -34.36829 |
| Longitude | |
| Westernmost | 20.8729 |
| Easternmost | 20.99481 |
| Altitude | |
| Min Altitude | N/A |
| Max Altitude | N/A |
| Depth | |
| Min Depth | N/A |
| Max Depth | N/A |
| Latitude | |
| Southernmost | -42.79061 |
| Northernmost | -42.50312 |
| Longitude | |
| Westernmost | -64.82287 |
| Easternmost | -64.29815 |
| Altitude | |
| Min Altitude | N/A |
| Max Altitude | N/A |
| Depth | |
| Min Depth | N/A |
| Max Depth | N/A |
| Latitude | |
| Southernmost | -50.5598 |
| Northernmost | -50.50175 |
| Longitude | |
| Westernmost | 166.18452 |
| Easternmost | 166.33857 |
| Altitude | |
| Min Altitude | N/A |
| Max Altitude | N/A |
| Depth | |
| Min Depth | N/A |
| Max Depth | N/A |
| Latitude | |
| Southernmost | 20.77811 |
| Northernmost | 21.03344 |
| Longitude | |
| Westernmost | -156.8605 |
| Easternmost | -156.713 |
| Altitude | |
| Min Altitude | N/A |
| Max Altitude | N/A |
| Depth | |
| Min Depth | N/A |
| Max Depth | N/A |
| Latitude | |
| Southernmost | 42.71181 |
| Northernmost | 43.18309 |
| Longitude | |
| Westernmost | 7.10727 |
| Easternmost | 7.68952 |
| Altitude | |
| Min Altitude | N/A |
| Max Altitude | N/A |
| Depth | |
| Min Depth | N/A |
| Max Depth | N/A |
| Latitude | |
| Southernmost | 26.75272 |
| Northernmost | 26.87306 |
| Longitude | |
| Westernmost | -113.1583 |
| Easternmost | -113.264 |
| Altitude | |
| Min Altitude | N/A |
| Max Altitude | N/A |
| Depth | |
| Min Depth | N/A |
| Max Depth | N/A |
| Location: | |
| Location | New Zealand |
| Detailed Location | Auckland Islands |
| Location | Mexico |
| Detailed Location | Laguna San Ignacio |
| Location | United States Of America |
| Detailed Location | Maui Nui |
| Location | Mediterranean Sea |
| Detailed Location | Ligurian Sea, Pelagos Sanctuary |
| Location | Argentina |
| Detailed Location | Peninsula Valdes |
| Location | South Africa |
| Detailed Location | Witsand |
| Data Collection: | ArcGIS 10.4 ESRI 2019 and ArcGIS 10.6 ESRI 2020 |
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| Data Storage: | 18 spatial data as shapefile (.shp) and 4 tabular data as comma-separated value (.csv). |
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