Albatrosses Outfitted With GPS Trackers Detect Illegal Fishing Vessels (smithsonianmag.com) 71
schwit1 shares a report from the Smithsonian: Capable of following fishing boats into remote regions out of reach of monitoring machines like ships, aircraft and even certain satellites, these feathered crimefighters could offer a convenient and cost-effective way to keep tabs on foul play at sea -- and may even help gather crucial conservation data along the way. [...] On top of their stamina and moxie, albatrosses also have a certain fondness for fish-toting vessels, says study author Samantha Patrick, a marine biologist at the University of Liverpool. To the birds, the fishing gear attached to these boats is basically a smorgasbord of snacks -- and albatrosses can spot the ships from almost 20 miles away.
To test the birds' patrolling potential, the researchers stomped into the marshy nesting grounds of wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) and Amsterdam albatrosses (Diomedea amsterdamensis) roosting on Crozet, Kerguelen and Amsterdam, three remote island locales in the southern Indian Ocean. After selecting 169 individuals of different ages, the team taped or glued transceivers, each weighing just two ounces, to the birds' backs and bid them adieu. Over the course of six months, the team's army of albatrosses surveyed over 20 million square miles of sea. Whenever the birds came within three or so miles of a boat, their trackers logged its coordinates, then beamed them via satellite to an online database that officials could access and cross-check with automatic identification system (AIS) data. Of the 353 fishing vessels detected, a whopping 28 percent had their AIS switched off. The number of covert ships was especially high in international waters, where about 37 percent of vessels operated AIS-free. [...] Because the birds and their transceivers detected only radar, no identifying information was logged. The task of verifying a boat's legal status still falls to officials, who must then decide whether to take action, Patrick explains. But in mapping potential hotspots of illegal fishing, the birds set off a chain reaction that could help bring perpetrators to justice. The results of the tracking method were published in the journal PNAS.
To test the birds' patrolling potential, the researchers stomped into the marshy nesting grounds of wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) and Amsterdam albatrosses (Diomedea amsterdamensis) roosting on Crozet, Kerguelen and Amsterdam, three remote island locales in the southern Indian Ocean. After selecting 169 individuals of different ages, the team taped or glued transceivers, each weighing just two ounces, to the birds' backs and bid them adieu. Over the course of six months, the team's army of albatrosses surveyed over 20 million square miles of sea. Whenever the birds came within three or so miles of a boat, their trackers logged its coordinates, then beamed them via satellite to an online database that officials could access and cross-check with automatic identification system (AIS) data. Of the 353 fishing vessels detected, a whopping 28 percent had their AIS switched off. The number of covert ships was especially high in international waters, where about 37 percent of vessels operated AIS-free. [...] Because the birds and their transceivers detected only radar, no identifying information was logged. The task of verifying a boat's legal status still falls to officials, who must then decide whether to take action, Patrick explains. But in mapping potential hotspots of illegal fishing, the birds set off a chain reaction that could help bring perpetrators to justice. The results of the tracking method were published in the journal PNAS.
poachers would just start shooting the albatrosses (Score:5, Insightful)
Seems like a good way to get a bunch of albatrosses killed. Once this became common knowledge, my guess is that illegal fishing vessels would quickly start shooting the birds so as not to be tracked.
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... illegal fishing vessels would quickly start shooting the birds so as not to be tracked.
And when albatrosses suddenly start dropping like flies in a particular area??? Nobody's going to smell a rat?
Re:poachers would just start shooting the albatros (Score:5, Funny)
I feel like you managed to be wrong in five different ways while expressing one single idea. Good density there.
Re: voters would just start voting the WINNING (Score:1)
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People who don't feel impeachment was warranted in the first place, obviously.
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Do I *really* need to point out that if albatrosses WHICH ARE BEING TRACKED are dropping like flies,
that the people tracking them will quickly figure out where they dropped and perhaps realize that
people shooting albatrosses just MIGHT be doing something illegal and are trying to conceal it
by shooting said albatrosses?
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My first thought as well.
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Will not matter. If bird is killed, then it is a good sign that someone is in the area that should not be.
Lasers! (Score:2)
Not if we attach some frigging lasers to their heads!..
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..lasers..
Damn you, you beat me to it. :p
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By the time they are within firing range, the alarm will have already tripped. But now let's put cameras and identifying equipment on the birds. Seeing who does the shooting will be great internet fodder.
Military vessels better dump their garbage more carefully too. Don't want enemy birds following them around.
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I think you're right in principle, but not in method. The ships would be more likely to use lasers. They'd be able to blind the birds at an enormous range. Bigger operations might conceivably dump lots of stray cats or rats at the nesting islands, but then again I don't know how much long term planning people in that career path engage in.
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Eftsoons! Know they not what they do?
I'm writing this from the middle of a wedding reception, so bear with me. From the story, there's water, water everywhere. Heed the Hermit.
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Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.
That's my nightmare wedding reception scenario.
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Seems like a good way to get a bunch of albatrosses killed. Once this became common knowledge, my guess is that illegal fishing vessels would quickly start shooting the birds so as not to be tracked.
Yeah, that turned out pretty well for the Ancient Mariner...
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Fortunately, they are not endangered, and reproduce themselves, so we aren't likely to run out.
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Sigh. Please, RTFA:
Of the 22 species of albatross species that roam the world’s waters, eight are endangered or critically endangered, including the Amsterdam albatross.
The Amsterdam albatross being one of the species used in the study.
Re:poachers would just start shooting the albatros (Score:4, Insightful)
Albatrosses are not endangered by any measure, and shooting them from a moving boat sounds like an excellent way to use up the ammunition of poachers.
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Of the 22 species of albatross species that roam the world’s waters, eight are endangered or critically endangered, including the Amsterdam albatross.
The Amsterdam albatross being one of the species used in the study.
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It is more complicated than that. There are a number of different albatross species, and some are endangered.
Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]: "Of the 21 albatross species recognised by IUCN on their Red List [from 2004], 19 are threatened, and the other two are near threatened.[50 [archive.org]] Three species (as recognised by the IUCN) are considered critically endangered: the Amsterdam
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Seems like a good way to get a bunch of albatrosses killed. Once this became common knowledge, my guess is that illegal fishing vessels would quickly start shooting the birds so as not to be tracked.
You know that killing an albatross is considered an exceedingly bad omen?
On a more serious note, I had the same thought.There are easier ways to do it nowdays. There is more than enough satellites in the sky with more than sufficient resolution.
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There are solar-powered drones which manage weeks in the air.
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Re:poachers would just start shooting the albatros (Score:4, Informative)
You don't need surveillance pods. Albatrosses gravitate naturally to fishing vessels - they are always generally circling overhead and a general nuisance with pooping and such.
All you need is equip them with a standard avian GPS tracker. They will basically gather near every fishing vessel and highlight their position for you.
And shooting a flying bird from a moving deck is really hard. Especially since said deck is slippery so if you're not careful, you're just as likely to slip and fall on your ass trying to hit a bird. Given it's a sport on land to go after game birds, which are generally raised to be big and fat and shootable, makes an albatross all that much harder. They aren't stupid birds and they know how to get their meals stealing it from fishing vessels already.
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Flying cars (Score:2)
So we do live in a rather SciFi world already. Just one without flying cars.
This comment written on a news site where every other week or so, there's a summary popping up about the need for new regulation about civilian operated drones or about a funny weird accident involving some. At a time when at any public there's always a couple of drones filming and photographing (at least in jurisdictions where this is possible).
We *are* living in an era of flying shit all over the place. We just aren't *on-board* of said flying shit, only remote controlling it. Which is a good idea, becaus
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("standard avian tracker" - dude, when did this even become a thing?),.
I can't say for certain exactly when it became a thing - you'd be better off asking one of the people who actually make and sell them... https://www.microwavetelemetry... [microwavetelemetry.com]
Re: poachers would just start shooting the albatro (Score:1)
Maybe the future vision was one where we pumped more money into the FAA or self flying aircraft that's below $100k?
Either way, lack of investment in research dollars probably because flying will always be more expensive than driving, dollar of gas per mile wise.
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You are comparing apples to oranges. You say that cloud cover makes satellite surveillance impossible. But the equipment on the birds is blind: all it does is detect radar and AIS signals, both of which are immune to clouds and fog. Replicating the same capability on a satellite will therefore not be impaired by cloud cover. A better argument would be that:
Radar can be detected within a few miles of the vessel itself
Surely, just the curvature of the earth ensures radar cannot be detected from more than a few tens of miles away. Satellites would not have a problem wit
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The difference is Albatrosses (sp?) circle fishing vessels, identifying those that *are not operating their AIS* as clearly detailed in the article.
Satellite can detect AIS that's not switched on; that's precisely what the birds are supposed to identify.
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Satellites *CANNOT* detect ships with their AIS switched off.
It's [current year], why doesn't Slashdot have an edit feature?!?
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Well, what you're looking for is the RADARSAT Constellation [wikipedia.org].
Already in orbit and functioning, with daily revisit of 95% of the planet's surface. Fishing boats aren't the fastest critters out there, so a combination of historical AIS data matched to satellite radar would let you easily figure who, when and where.
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My thoughts exactly.
A thousand rounds of shotgun ammo is way cheaper than the fine illegal fishing operations get hit with when caught.
Or even just poisoned fish scraps thrown into the air/water, what would poachers care about killing other birds too?
The concept is good but the cost to the Albatross and other seabirds population will be devastating if they implement this idea..
âoeFoul playâ (Score:2)
Very clever. Like fouling lines on a boat. I get it.
always terrible data loggers (Score:2)
why do seemingly all wildlife studies use such terrible data loggers ?
its not hard to invalidate their results as they use such bad equipment...
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What is this even in response to? Sounds like these loggers worked quite well, and considering the conditions they have to operate in that's rather impressive.
Damn birds know how to hold a grudge! (Score:5, Interesting)
And through the drifts the snowy clifts
Did send a dismal sheen:
Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken—
The ice was all between.
The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around:
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
Like noises in a swound!
At length did cross an Albatross,
Thorough the fog it came;
As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God's name.
It ate the food it ne'er had eat,
And round and round it flew.
The ice did split with a thunder-fit;
The helmsman steered us through!
And a good south wind sprung up behind;
The Albatross did follow,
And every day, for food or play,
Came to the mariner's hollo!
In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,
It perched for vespers nine;
Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,
Glimmered the white Moon-shine.'
'God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus!—
Why look'st thou so?'—With my cross-bow
I shot the ALBATROSS.
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Haha! This is what came to mind first for me, too.
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You do know that some people read without being forced to by a teacher?
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You folks must have been ancient enough to have overseen the birth of Web.
Yes. Also, is anyone here from the RDI?
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Finally! The recognition I deserve! It's no Nobel Peace Prize, but I'll take it! Thank you, young person! Stay in school!
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Well... (Score:3)
...the "results" of the tracking method are going to be... a lot of dead albatrosses.
I'm not trying to be funny at all.
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But Weimerskirch, who has spent years documenting the birds’ behavior, points out that most albatrosses surveil vessels from hundreds or thousands of feet away, a distance that makes the trackers essentially impossible to spot.
Already shooting a moving target from a rocking platform from hundreds of feet away is no small feat, doing so from thousands of feet? They will just waste their ammunition.
World see suddne shortage of Albatrosses (Score:2)
Scientists unable to determine reason.
Sudden rise in rifle purchases by fishermen.
ATF cannot understand why?
China is going to be upset (Score:2, Informative)
the team taped transceivers... to the birds' backs (Score:3)
Glued? (Score:2)
Why not tacker them on or use a nail gun while you're at it?
This is only the first step (Score:2)
If it weren't for that man from Porlock (Score:2)
I'll have two ice creams, please (Score:2)
It's bleedin' sea-bird flavor!
Did the albatrosses consent to being tracked? (Score:2)
I mean, how would you like it if your every move were being monitored, even it somehow *were* for some higher purpose or notion of the greater good?
This is a gross invasion of privacy, and somebody should think of this from the birds point of view.
Snitches get Stitiches (Score:2)
Why kill the albatrosses? (Score:2)
unintended consequence of unintended consequence (Score:2)
Oh, the stupidity in this thread!
Every second post contains some kind of jism outburst by the veritable Adam mansplaining to the veritable Eve