1999
UAS NEWS RELEASE ARCHIVES
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November
1, 1999
Humpback whale identification through photos will be discussed by Sally Mizroch of the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle at a public seminar Tuesday (Nov. 2) at noon in Anderson Building, room 221 on the UAS campus. Photographs of humpback whale flukes are like fingerprints according to Dr. Brendan Kelly assistant professor of biology at UAS. "Scientists are then able to track whales that migrate between Hawaii and Alaska by comparing these photographs over time," he said. "You can use the frequency with which you re-sight the same animals to extrapolate to a population estimate," Kelly says. "ThereÍs really no other way to count a humpback whale population which is spread over such a large area and spends much of its time under water." About 25,000 photos have been gathered by researchers over the years and put into a large database. To aid in identification, Mizroch coordinates a computerized system that narrows the search for individual whales from all of the photographs. She will present a demonstration of how the system works at the free, public Biological Sciences Seminar. -30-
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