Citizen science programmes for cetaceans

How to contribute to cetology

With 80,000+ humpback whales identified by its AI technology, Happywhale has demonstrated the power of participatory science. iNaturalist, OBIS-SEAMAP, Cascadia Research: 12 platforms let you contribute to knowledge of cetaceans.

Going further

Contributing to science is within everyone’s reach: tracking technologies, cetacean photography, reporting a stranding and the directory of associations.

Participatory science: the citizen at the heart of the data

Participatory science (citizen science) plays a growing part in cetology. Happywhale identifies humpback whales automatically from photographs using AI and has gathered more than a million images since it was founded by Ted Cheeseman. iNaturalist and its OBIS-SEAMAP component (Duke) aggregate field sightings worldwide with geolocation.

In France, OBSenMER (Pelagis, OFB) collects opportunistic sightings from the coast or at sea; the RNE calls on anyone who witnesses a stranding. Cellphone-based whale sighting has made it possible to identify new populations in the Red Sea. The Whale Alert platform coordinates reports and real-time alerts to vessels along the east coast of the United States in order to prevent collisions with the North Atlantic right whale.