This summer the Seal Center has been working on a project in cooperation with Svarmi ehf, experimenting with the use of thermal cameras attached to drones when counting seals. The thermal camera is attached to a drone as well as a regular camera. After the drone has flown over the seal colony the count will be done off the photos from the twon kinds of cameras and compared as well as to counting results made from land.
Potpulation size counts are normally made from air. It can however sometimes be difficult to count from air for the seals can blend in with the environment. The experiment is to determine if the results will be more accurate when using a thermal camera rather than a normal one or manual counts.
Camera as is being used in the experiment