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.
This dataset contains image chips as png files.
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: Image chips (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/90fab89e-5d07-4d5c-b619-60799a4d09f8
| Access Constraints: | Data is available upon request from the UK Polar Data Centre that can be contacted at PDCServiceDesk@bas.ac.uk. Data access requires user name and email address, which will be shared with Maxar Technologies. |
|---|---|
| Use Constraints: | Data released under the Maxar Technologies group license (https://www.maxar.com/legal/group-license). All images are protected by the Maxar Technologies copyright. Imagery courtesy of Maxar Technologies. |
| Creation Date: | 2021-12-14 |
|---|---|
| Dataset Progress: | Complete |
| Dataset Language: | English |
| ISO Topic Categories: |
|
| Parameters: |
|
| Personnel: | |
| Name | UK PDC |
| Role(s) | Metadata Author |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Dr Hannah C Cubaynes |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| 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. | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. |
|
| Temporal Coverage: | |
|---|---|
| Start Date | 2006-08-12 |
| End Date | 2017-02-20 |
| Spatial Coverage: | |
| 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 | -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 | -42.79061 |
| Northernmost | -42.50315 |
| Longitude | |
| Westernmost | -64.82287 |
| Easternmost | -64.29819 |
| Altitude | |
| Min Altitude | N/A |
| Max Altitude | N/A |
| Depth | |
| Min Depth | N/A |
| Max Depth | N/A |
| 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 | 26.75272 |
| Northernmost | 26.87306 |
| Longitude | |
| Westernmost | -113.264 |
| Easternmost | -113.1583 |
| Altitude | |
| Min Altitude | N/A |
| Max Altitude | N/A |
| Depth | |
| Min Depth | N/A |
| Max Depth | N/A |
| Location: | |
| Location | Mexico |
| Detailed Location | Laguna San Ignacio |
| Location | United States Of America |
| Detailed Location | Maui Nui |
| Location | Argentina |
| Detailed Location | Peninsula Valdes |
| Location | Mediterranean Sea |
| Detailed Location | Ligurian Sea, Pelagos Sanctuary |
| Location | South Africa |
| Detailed Location | Witsand |
| Location | New Zealand |
| Detailed Location | Auckland Islands |
| Data Collection: | ArcGIS 10.4 ESRI 2019 and ArcGIS 10.6 ESRI 2020. |
|---|
| Data Storage: | 633 imagery data as png (.png). |
|---|