Researchers hope tracking zooplankton from space will help endangered whales

Frances Willick · CBC News

· Posted: May 29, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 6 hours ago

Researchers are hoping a method that identifies zooplankton from abstraction volition yet assistance them track the question of critically endangered North Atlantic close whales successful the Gulf of Maine.

Scientists astatine the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences successful Maine are utilizing NASA outer information to effort to place Calanus finmarchicus, the tiny zooplankton that are the main nutrient root of North Atlantic close whales.

The zooplankton, which are smaller than a atom of rice, incorporate a reddish pigment — the aforesaid pigment that makes salmon look pink. When ample quantities of the creatures congregate astatine the water's surface, that pigment affects the spectrum of sunlight that is absorbed and reflected, and the satellite can observe the resulting colour shift.

The researchers anticipation that by tracking the presence of zooplankton, they volition someday beryllium capable to foretell the question of North Atlantic close whales, and hone attempts to support them.

"The Gulf of Maine conditions person been changing. They've been rapidly warming. And we judge that means their main nutrient root has moved to a antithetic location," says Catherine Mitchell, a elder probe scientist at the Bigelow Laboratory and co-author of a caller survey astir the water colour technique.

"So if we cognize wherever the whales are, it could assistance pass the speech astir their conservation."

North Atlantic close whales are nearing extinction, with lone astir 370 remaining, and lone astir 70 breeding females.

After 17 dormant whales were identified successful Canada and the United States successful 2017, Canada implemented restrictions connected sportfishing and vessel speeds successful definite areas of the Atlantic portion to forestall further deaths owed to vessel strikes and entanglements successful sportfishing gear.

Knowing wherever the whales are, and wherever they mightiness go, could assistance governments much efficiently usage sportfishing closures oregon vas velocity restrictions to support them.

Seeing red

The Bigelow Laboratory researchers got the thought of utilizing the outer information to effort to find Calanus finmarchicus from a erstwhile survey that was done off Norway.

But erstwhile they started reviewing the information from the Gulf of Maine dating backmost to 2003, they noticed thing unusual.

"We were detecting patterns retired of the play erstwhile we would expect to spot Calanus finmarchicus, which made america recognize that we were seeing different things too," Mitchell said.

The exemplary was picking up not conscionable Calanus finmarchicus, but different zooplankton that incorporate the aforesaid reddish pigment. Mitchell and Rebekah Shunmugapandi, pb writer and post-doctoral idiosyncratic astatine the Bigelow Laboratory, are present trying to refine their method to effort to pinpoint the North Atlantic close whale's favourite nutrient species.

Shunmugapandi is moving to validate immoderate of the outer information with in-the-water observations from researchers successful the Gulf of Maine arsenic good arsenic existent close whale sightings.

"They determination on with their prey, right?" Shunmugapandi said. "So with each those successful situ Calunus and the close whale sighting information acceptable … it's benignant of a reverse survey that I'm doing."

New satellite, caller possibilities

One imaginable solution to differentiating Calanus finmarchicus from different red-pigmented zooplankton could beryllium orbiting the Earth close now. 

The researchers person truthful acold relied connected information from NASA's Aqua satellite, but the instrumentality utilized to seizure the airy spectrum, MODIS, is nearing the extremity of its lifespan. However, NASA's newer PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, water Ecosystem) satellite, which was launched past year, could vastly amended scientists' abilities to analyse water colour.

Aqua's light-detecting instrumentality identifies 10 wavelengths of light. The researchers utilized lone 3 of its wavelengths for their study. 

The caller instrumentality aboard PACE, called the Ocean Color Instrument, tin observe 280 wavelengths.

Shunmugapandi says researchers would request to make a caller machine exemplary to analyse a wider spectrum of light.

"The anticipation is that with overmuch much wavelengths, we mightiness beryllium capable to tease retired immoderate much things, peculiarly things really similar the antithetic species," Mitchell says.

'1 portion of the puzzle'

Currently, zooplankton researchers effort to place and way taxon by collecting them successful nets to examine, utilizing video cameras that relation as underwater microscopes, and studying acoustics successful the water.

Catherine Johnson is a probe idiosyncratic astatine Fisheries and Oceans Canada who specializes successful zooplankton ecology.

She says quantifying and identifying zooplankton is hard due to the fact that the water is truthful immense and their organisation is adaptable implicit abstraction and time. Most sampling techniques enactment champion erstwhile they're focused successful a circumstantial country oregon clip frame.

Johnson, who was not progressive successful the caller study, says distant sensing of zooplankton could beryllium a instrumentality successful the toolbox of scientists.

"It has the imaginable to supply bully sum implicit abstraction and clip if you're looking for exceptionally dense and ample aggregations that are close adjacent the surface," she said.

"It's 1 portion of the puzzle, and I deliberation that the survey is a impervious of conception to effort to use these methods successful an area where they haven't been applied before."

Mitchell and Shunmugapandi agree there's tons much enactment to beryllium done.

"Science is simply a process and we're not saying that this outer merchandise we've made is the be-all and end-all reply to knowing wherever close whales are," says Mitchell. "We are conscionable trying to supply an other portion of accusation that could beryllium utile to the communicative and adjuvant to people."