Can Drones Democratize Research and Data Collection of our Oceans?
Dr. Iain Kerr is CEO of Ocean Alliance, a non-profit organization with a mission to protect whales and their ocean environment through research, scientific collaboration, public education, and the arts. For almost 40 years, Ocean Alliance has made a positive difference in this world. Their staff works to carry out its mission with scientific integrity to help protect and preserve the marine environment on which the lives of all of us, people as well as whales, are utterly dependent.
Iain began his career at Ocean Alliance as a volunteer and has grown with the organization over the last 30 years. He is listed as author on over 35 scientific papers and has ensured that Ocean Alliance messages reach the general public through international television and films. Iain has led international conservation research efforts across the globe. As a result of exposing illegal sea cucumber fishing in the Galapagos, Iain received the SOS Grand Blue award in 1994. He was awarded the Chevron Conservation Award in 2006 and in 2014 the Annenberg Foundation listed Iain as one of 25 visionary leaders.
In 2013, Iain recognized that drones could be the future of whale research and conservation. During an attempt to collect samples from a whale, he was sprayed by whale’s blow hole. This chance encounter set him on a quest to develop a way that a drone collect whale samples expended through their blow holes. This ultimately let to the creation of the Snot Bot and a opened the door to a new type of whale research, one that democratizes data, enabling groups throughout the world to conduct research and collect data on marine mammals that they would not be able to do using expensive research vessels.
In this edition of the Drone Radio Show, Iain talks about Ocean Alliance, the evolution of the Snot Bot and how drones can spur more research of our oceans, which ultimately impacts the entire ecosystem of the world.