Description:

Ocean remote sensing platforms have revolutionized the scientific understanding and monitoring capabilities during the last 50 years.  Enormous volumes of satellite data provide valuable insights into a growing range of terrestrial, oceanic, and ecological processes. The ongoing advancement of sensor technology, alongside increased cooperation among agencies and countries, further augments our observational capacity. More recently, the advent of very high-resolution satellite imagery at sub-meter resolution allows the identification of large marine animals (individual whales, bird and pinniped colonies).  Use of aerial drones allows collection of even higher resolution imagery to collect data on coastal habitat characteristics, ecosystem restoration, community composition, and invasive species at very fine spatial scales.  All of these applications (observation of the physical and biological characteristics of ocean ecosystems; the assessment of the habitat, distribution, and density of marine animals; and the high-resolution characterization of coastal habitats) offers the potential to augment field sampling that would otherwise require prohibitively expensive ship expeditions and surveys in difficult-to-reach locations. In this session we invite presentations that highlight the existing and evolving application of satellite imagery into marine resource management.