Use of optical satellite imagery to estimate abundance of Narwhal (Monodon monoceros) in Makinson Inlet in the Canadian high Arctic
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Remote sensing technologies have expanded methods for monitoring wildlife. Very High Resolution (VHR) satellite imagery is becoming more widely used for animal detection. This is especially important for remotely based and hard to detect species such as narwhal ( Monodon monoceros Linnaeus, 1758). Narwhal are a data deficient species due to their large geographic distribution and elusive nature. During the summer, narwhal from the Baffin Bay population migrate to fiords and inlets in Canada and Greenland but their spatial use and density in fiords in the high Arctic is relatively unknown. Makinson Inlet, an inlet on Ellesmere Island in northern Canada, was surveyed using aerial methods in 2013 and estimated a surface abundance of 812 narwhal (adjusted to 2387). Another aerial survey was attempted but unsuccessful due to inclement weather in 2022; however, satellite imagery offers another method for estimating abundance of narwhal in this remote fiord. In this study the World-View 3 satellite (31 cm resolution) was tasked to obtain optical imagery from Makinson Inlet and 5752 km 2 was imaged between August 2 to 5, 2022. Imagery readers with previous satellite imagery analysis experience manually analyzed the imagery and identified 406 narwhal. The estimated number of narwhal in Makinson Inlet was adjusted for availability bias to account for deeper whales that would not be visible in the imagery (>1 m deep). The adjusted estimated abundance for narwhal in Makinson Inlet was 1987 (CV = 0.12; 95 % CI: 1578-2502). This study demonstrates the first use of VHR satellite imagery as a remotely-based non-invasive method to obtain information on narwhal abundance in the Canadian high Arctic. • Very High Resolution (VHR) satellite imagery was obtained from Makinson Inlet on Ellesmere Island in northern Canada in August 2022 to assess the use of VHR satellite imagery for monitoring narwhal ( Monodon monoceros ). • Readers with previous satellite imagery analysis experience analyzed the imagery and detected 406 narwhal. • The estimated number of narwhal in Makinson Inlet was adjusted for availability bias and was between 1578 and 2502. • This study demonstrates the first use of VHR satellite imagery as a remotely-based non-invasive method to detect and obtain information on narwhal abundance.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".