Drone-Monitoring: Improving the Detectability of Threatened Marine Megafauna

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs; or drones) are an emerging tool to provide a safer, cheaper, and quieter alternative to traditional methods of studying marine megafauna in a natural environment. The UFES Nectology Laboratory team developed a drone-monitoring to assess the impacts on megafauna related to the Fundão dam mining tailings disaster in the Southeast Brazilian coast. We have developed a systematic pattern to optimize the available resources by covering the largest possible area. The fauna observer can monitor the environment from a privileged angle with virtual reality and subsequently analyzes each video captured in 4k, allowing to deepening behavioral ecology knowledge. Applying the drone-monitoring method, we have observed an increasing detectability by adjusting the camera angle, height, orientation, and speed of the UAV; which saved time and resources for monitoring turtles, sea birds, large fish, and especially small cetaceans efficiently and comparably.