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Eye in the Skies

March 12, 2018

A modified quadcopter drone gave WHOI researchers and colleagues a bird’s-eye view and computer-automated counts of a new “supercolony” of more than 1.5 million Adelie penguins in the Danger Islands—a chain of remote, rocky islands off of the Antarctic Peninsula’s northern tip. Because the islands are likely to remain an important breeding location for penguins under projected climate change, the researchers say they deserve special consideration in the negotiation and design of Marine Protected Areas in the region. (Photo courtesy of Thomas Sayre-McChord and Hanumant Singh, Northeastern University and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)