Image This: Utilizing Photography to Monitor Grey Whale Well being – Geospatial Ecology of Marine Megafauna Laboratory

Gavin Cada, TOPAZ/JASPER HS intern, Brookings-Harbor High School

Hi, my identify is Gavin Cada and I’m a highschool intern for the 2026 TOPAZ/JASPER challenge. I at present go to high school at Brookings Harbor High School however I’m initially from Las Vegas, Nevada. Having simply moved to the south coast of Oregon a bit of underneath a 12 months in the past, I heard concerning the TOPAZ/JASPER challenge by my faculty’s TRIO ETS program and determined to use due to my curiosity in Biology, however extra particularly to expertise actual subject work that contributes to skilled science.

In faculty, I discovered about our altering setting and the first impression of anthropogenic exercise. During my spare time, I’ve actually loved conducting my very own analysis and studying about conservation efforts by the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF). Specifically, a determine that has all the time remained with me is the Living Planet Index’s 2024 graph that measures the common international inhabitants change of monitored vertebrate populations from 1970 to 2020. The graph reveals a transparent unfavorable decline of vertebrate populations over the past 50 years. From this graph, it’s clear that present wildlife populations are experiencing drastic results, and I’m curious to study what strategies can be utilized to assist them. Publicly out there knowledge has proven that anthropogenic exercise is a big a part of this present decline in biodiversity by CO2 emissions, international warming, and different listed causes within the IBPES report not talked about (1). I really feel answerable for the safety of Earth’s pure sources not solely as a result of I respect ecosystems however as a result of people rely on them by industries equivalent to fishing and agriculture.

A marvel I’ve discovered attention-grabbing throughout my time with this internship is that the ocean, while deceptively showing flat to the human eye, truly has 1000’s of microorganisms, zooplankton, and algae residing inside it. Growing up in Las Vegas, Nevada, the ecosystems I had been uncovered to have been truly not so totally different from the Oregon Coast in relation to hiding how dynamic they’re. At Mount Charleston, one among my favourite areas, I incessantly encountered Wild horses (Equus ferus), Palmer’s chipmunks (Neotamias palmeri), Western yellowjackets, and small birds such because the slate coloured darkish eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) and American robin (Turdus migratorius). Although I didn’t initially have a digicam in my time in Nevada, I constructed up my primary understanding of wildlife images and animal habits through the use of my telephone’s digicam.

When I moved to the Oregon coast, I obtained an enormous improve for my wildlife images. Not solely did I get a brand new digicam, however I additionally gained new entry to quite a lot of totally different environments: from the coast and marshes to forests. Having an expert digicam has allowed me to get clearer pictures of birds, mammals, and bugs to add to citizen science platforms like iNaturalist. However, think about my shock after I discovered that citizen science can transcend land and into the water by the Pacific Coast Feeding Group (PCFG) grey whales and the GEMM lab’s web site, Individuwhale.com.

Over the previous 10 years the GEMM lab (Geospatial Ecology off Marine Megafauna) has created a photograph ID catalogue composed of pictures taken of PCFG grey whales for use to watch their actions and well being. Amazingly, this picture ID catalogue is hosted on the web site “Individuwhale,” additionally created by the GEMM lab. Individuwhale has a number of functions, however most significantly the web site acts as a public useful resource for most people to study who the PCFG grey whales are and the analysis that has come from the GEMM lab. One of essentially the most impactful components of Individuwhale could be their “submit a whale sighting” function, which permits any particular person to contribute to science by submitting pictures taken of PCFG grey whales.

But what makes a photograph so essential?

During my six weeks with the TOPAZ/JASPER challenge, I discovered a lot of the tasks’ significance in science in addition to its impression. One goal of TOPAZ (Theodolite Overlooking Predators and Zooplankton) is to watch the connection between abundance of prey in Port Orford, OR and the presence or absence of the PCFG grey whales throughout their migration. One of the instruments we use to watch whales on our cliff website is a digicam. A digicam is essential as a result of pictures can act as information for a whale’s presence at a sure time and place, so extra time researchers can overview and establish distinctive patterns. Photos are additionally essential for figuring out species, equivalent to grey whales, and may seize particular person traits (like scars from killer whales, flat vs spherical dorsal humps, and so forth.) (learn extra from Ale’s earlier weblog, Stories from a whales life). Finally, pictures generally is a file for a whale’s physique situation, and show how anthropogenic exercise, equivalent to boat strikes or entanglement scars, can impression their well being. During the final stretch of our subject season, we noticed our first whale of the season named “Propscar”. After capturing as many pictures as attainable of the whale when it surfaced, we despatched the most effective pictures to members of the GEMM lab who later recognized this whale as Propscar on account of this picture ID catalogue. As you’ll be able to see from the picture under, Propscar is a superb instance of utilizing images to evaluate whale situation and well being monitoring, because the 4 distinct line formed marks clearly originate from a ship strike.

Ultimately, this internship with the TOPAZ/JASPER challenge this summer season has been a totally educating expertise that taught me a lot. I’ve discovered that teamwork and correct communication are essential to ecological subject work. I’ve additionally discovered that persistence, and dealing with the bits of boredom that include observing a horizon line, are regular on a regular basis components of the job. Success isn’t all the time assured within the subject; we don’t all the time see grey whales on a regular basis and we had solely seen one this season, however to outline this as a failure could be removed from the reality. While this lack of whales may very well be perceived as failure, we collected vital absence knowledge on grey whales that tells an essential story, so that you shouldn’t decide your fieldwork’s effectiveness off of things which can be out of your management.

My time right here has meant many issues to me: studying the best way to be a scientist, connecting with individuals, and contributing to skilled science. But the half I’ve discovered essentially the most satisfying was studying concerning the scientific tools used for the TOPAZ/JASPER challenge. Equipment isn’t the one factor I’ll be working with in my future profession although; by this internship I’ve additionally discovered about dependable knowledge entry and laptop expertise which I’m excited to use down the highway.

References

1. Brondizio, Eduardo, et al. “Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.” Zenodo, Zenodo, 16 July 2024, zenodo.org/records/6417333.
2. “Living Planet Index.” Livingplanetindex.Org, www.livingplanetindex.org/lpi. Accessed 5 Sept. 2026