Blog Post Image: Scientists Use Marine Robots to Detect Endangered Whales

While the gliders continue to run their surveys, the team aboard Endeavor works in rough seas to deploy a video plankton recorder, an instrument that helps them assess the availability of food for baleen whales. Scientists believe right whales may travel to the central Gulf of Maine during November – January to mate, but very little oceanographic or zooplankton data exists for this area, because weather conditions can be very challenging in during the late fall and winter. “We wanted to get the gliders up to this area that’s very rarely surveyed by ships,” says Baumgartner, in an attempt to fill in some of the gaps in what is known about these whales and their ecosystem. (Photo by Nadine Lysiak, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)