University of New England

The University of New England has received a $581,000 federal research grant to establish a NASA remote marine sensing center.

The center's first project is to use NASA satellites orbiting the earth and a network of ocean buoys to track and study the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

Professor Stephan Zeeman, Ph.D., a marine biologist, is spearheading the project. "The ultimate goal is to be able to identify where right whales go and when they go there," Zeeman said.

Zeeman is an oceanographer who has used satellites to identify and study marine habitats in other parts of the world. His partner in the project is Scott Kraus, a biologist at the New England Aquarium in Boston and a leading authority on the North Atlantic right whale population.

NASA, responsible for Earth-orbiting satellites that can detect myriad kinds of information from space and transmit that information back to Earth, has created a diverse program of "remote sensing" stations in collaboration with universities and research facilities around the world.

The University of New England was chosen to develop such a site at UNE’s Marine Science Education and Research Center.

Long-Term Goal
The long-term goal of the first phase of this project is to develop a real-time early warning system for use by mariners to avoid ship-whale collisions. Whales in all parts of the world are subject to collisions with large vessels, and this is of special concern with the North Atlantic right whale. There are only about 300 of these whales left. Such a system would use remote sensing data and satellite tagging of animals to predict where concentrations of these marine mammals might occur.

The researchers will compare historical migration records of right whales with satellite and buoy data that can provide such information as ocean temperatures and plankton distribution. A network of research buoys called the Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System also could be equipped with acoustic equipment to detect whale vocalizations when the animals are nearby. Using computer models, the data could help teach scientists why right whales choose certain places and where they are likely to go.

Eventually, the researchers also plan to tag some of the whales with battery-powered beacons that transmit their locations to the satellites. Tagging marine animals, and right whales in particular, has proved a difficult task because the tags fall off, stop sending signals or cause harm to the animals.

Computer Laboratory
The computer laboratory that Zeeman is setting up on campus will employ three full-time research assistants and provide opportunities for students to participate in the project. The $581,000 is considered a one-year grant. More funding will be needed for future years.

Education will be an important part of this research initiative. Scientists will develop an interactive website using GIS technologies that will enable users to view movements of marine mammals overlain on NASA remote sensing imagery, both from archival and real-time data.