98-01-13, Tracee Geernaert (Tracee at iphc.washington.edu) writes:

<< We are in the process of designing a research project which requires
seabird surveys off the stern of a fishing vessel. Has anyone out there
in Tweeterville ever used video to productively quantify bird numbers on
sea or land. We may be testing seabird avoidance devices during
deployment of longline gear and we will need to conduct bird surveys. We
have a difference of opinion in the group over whether it could be used
effectively. >>

Tracee -- I suppose I might be at least one logical person to reply. I've
written about this on this listserv ('tweeters') before I think. I'll cc this
reply to 'SEABIRD-L' as well as there might be some additional feedback from
other seabird researchers. Each Spring during the past four years with at
least this one and one more afterwards to go, I am stationed onshore in San
Luis Obispo Co., California, from where we monitor the northbound Gray Whale
cow/calf migration in addition to loon migration as a personal ancillary
project.

One marvelous piece of equipment that we use to sub-sample and compare daytime
and night time migration are Viet Nam era military heat sensors (infrared)
linked to video recorders with real time counters. The continual running
images record the warm whale respirations (blows) brilliantly out to as far as
3 nmiles and cover three degrees of ocean surface to the horizon. Since this
is black & white and infrared, the images are identical day or night. The
long-shore near-shore migration of seabirds is recorded as well.

For those unbroken strings of many many thousands of Pacific Loons, as well as
cormorants, pelicans, brant, scoters, and gulls, the observed and recorded
images are incredible and crisp! During the daylight hours, I physically
count the loons as they pass by a fixed point. Review of tapes and counting
the loons recorded on tape has proven an excellent check and calibration of my
sight-on counting and estimating effort. So, from a fixed shore-based
operation, this equipment works perfectly.

The seabird detectability range is much less than for whales and I'd say
limited to no more than 0.25 to 0.5 nmile to perhaps even 1.0 nmile or more
for something as large as an albatross. The resolution of warm heat-
reflecting images of seabirds which show as white 'hot' spots (kind of like
looking at a b&w photo negative) is usually not good enough to separate
species, at least to my eye, but is certainly good enough to distinguish the
general categories -- loons - cormorants - pelicans - scoters - brant - gulls
- shearwaters/fulmars - albatross, etc. The little stuff like alcids,
phalaropes, and even bats show up but they have to be very very close. Pigeon
Guillemots are rather obvious and easy and phalaropes only when they are
passing close to shore in swarms of tens of thousands.

For video monitoring long-line operations from a fishing or research vessel, I
can't think of anything that would be suitable other than just standard
daylight video equipment. We have experimented with the infrared heat-sensing
equipment and other night-scope type devices on ships and from such a constant
moving platform (even a stationary vessel) there is too much movement which
results in image smearing, thus is essentially useless. We have also
experimented with just regular video equipment rigged to a fixed platform on
the vessel. This can actually work quite well. All of the NOAA research
vessels have video equipment set to monitor activity on the deck from the
bridge, and it would not be a problem to have your own set up and aimed to
monitor seabird activity around long-line operations I'd think. However,
regular video equipment will only work during periods of natural available
daylight and you'd probably do just as well if not better just monitoring the
activity as has been done in the past by eye. Your equipment of course will
have to be housed and protected from the harsh at-sea environmental elements.
I am unaware of anything currently suitable for monitoring activity at night.

A side note; having done some Marbled Murrelet survey work in the forests in
the past, I've always thought that the infrared heat sensing equipment that we
use for coastal whale and loon migration studies could work quite well to
monitor both day and night behavior of murrelets at the nest site as well as
possibly being used at forest survey look-out sites. Evidence from the radar
studies posted here recently on Tweeters however might suggest that as a tool
for use other than at nest sites, the infrared heat sensor's value might be
limited. For other forms of warm-blooded wildlife, this equipment could
probably be an interesting and at times valuable tool for studying behavior in
addition to longer range radio and satellite tracking gear.

Richard Rowlett (Pagodroma at aol.com)
47.56N, 122.13W
(Seattle/Bellevue, WA USA)