Dear colleagues,

 

** For the attention of those actively using satellite imagery to study whales**

 

We would like to welcome all those actively engaged in research using satellite imagery to study whales to the SMM hybrid workshop ‘Satellites to study live and stranded whales: establishing best practices’ held on 10^th November 8:30 to 17:30 AWST (00:30 – 09:30 UTC).

 

Link to the SMM workshops: https://www.smmconference.org/workshops/#1718154490483-e70a39d6-46c8

 

Background:

Very high-resolution satellites orbiting Earth offer the prospect of upscaling the monitoring of live and stranded cetaceans around the globe, particularly in remote regions. In recognition of the importance of refining and coordinating the use of satellites to study cetaceans, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) Scientific Committee (SC) endorsed the creation of an Intersessional Correspondence Group (ICG) ‘Satellites to Study Whales’ uniting researchers actively engaged in and interested in using satellite imagery to study cetaceans.

The main objectives of the ‘Satellite to Study Whales’ ICG are; (1) the coordination of information, data, and code sharing among research groups conducting active research on the use of satellite imagery to monitor whales; (2) to facilitate the development of automated methods and avoid duplication of effort; and (3) to negotiate better tasking opportunities with satellite imagery providers.

Following recommendations from the IWC SC meeting in May 2023 (see report), this workshop will focus on establishing best practices in the community supported by short talks from experts and group discussions, on topics such as annotation, automatic detection, and data and code sharing.

 

Agenda:

The aim of this workshop is to discuss and propose best practices for:

• Annotating satellite imagery (session 1)
• Annotation attributes (session 2)
• Publishing research manuscript and sharing datasets to support automated detection (session 3)
• Automated detection accuracy metrics (session 4)

 

Registration:

**Please note the following invitation is directed to those actively using satellites to study whales, only.** This stipulation is in place to ensure the aims of the workshop can be achieved. To establish best practice for the community the workshop will be driven by active discussions based on researchers experience.

 

Attending in-person (scholarships available):

• Link to register for in-person participation: https://www.smmconference.org/registration/
• Scholarship to cover the registration cost: there is some funding available to cover the cost of registration, the ICG are prioritising participants from high income countries and early career researchers (including master and PhD students). For enquiries, please email Hannah Cubaynes (hannah.cubaynes@bas.ac.uk) and Penny Clarke (penark38@bas.ac.uk).

 

Attending online (free):

Virtual participation is free. To register, please email your interest to Hannah Cubaynes (hannah.cubaynes@bas.ac.uk) and Penny Clarke (penark38@bas.ac.uk).

 

Cheers,

 

Hannah Cubaynes and Penny Clarke