Space data being used to monitor, protect endangered North Atlantic right whales

Space data is being used to monitor and protect endangered North Atlantic right whales in Canadian waters.

Space data is being used to monitor and protect endangered North Atlantic right whales in Canadian waters.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) launched the initiative called "smartWhales" in 2021, in co-operation with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and Transport Canada.

"The North Atlantic right whales were actually suffering quite a bit of damage themselves during a period from 2017 to 2019 or 2020," said Mike Kirby, earth observation utilization and service program officer with CSA, in an interview with CTV Atlantic's Todd Battis. "There were 21 deaths of the North Atlantic right whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, so it appeared that the Canadian waters were actually being quite dangerous for these whales."

As a part of the launch, Canada provided a total of $5.3 million over three years to five Canadian companies for a series of projects to help protect the endangered species. Kirby says that three-year window ended in March.

"Three of them were investigating the detection and monitoring whales from space and two of the projects were investigating the modeling of the potential risk of collision, for example, unfortunate collision with a vessel, as well as the habitat for the whales."

According to Kirby, the research being done using space data is a compliment to the airborne work that's already being done by Transport Canada and DFO.

"So it's not to replace things that are being done already. If anything, it's to compliment them and hopefully down the road be able to cover a bigger area and be able to give them some intelligent information that they haven't been seeing using the current system that they're working with," he said.