An aerial survey in Greenland: a bit of theory, more practice and some analysis

Speaker: Dr. Louise Burt (CREEM)

Abstract

Members of RUWPA have been involved with analysing aerial surveys of marine mammals around the coast of Greenland for several years. In May 2009, I was invited to participate in a survey along the northwest coast. The main species of interest were beluga, narwhal and walrus and in order to take account of imperfect detection a double-observer search protocol was implemented. For the first few days bad weather hindered our progress to the study region and we hop-scotched our way up the coast, sightseeing as we went. Fortunately, the weather improved and so we were able to start surveying. I will describe (briefly) double-observer methods and what happened in practice, show some photographs of the trip north and finish with some results.