Polar Ecology and Conservation

The polar regions are immensely special, but changing in response to current threats. Climate change, fisheries, pollution and direct human disturbance all threaten polar marine systems. As we move away from scientific bases and populated areas, fewer data are available on populations of predators and, consequently, huge gaps remain in our understanding of the polar ecosystems.

We want our polar regions to be healthy, resilient and to have evidence-based conservation measures. We aim to help by bringing large scale monitoring to these regions.

Camera technology affords us the ability to deploy ‘virtual ecologists’ in hard-to-reach areas, or in places where human presence might disturb wildlife and disrupt their behaviour. Since 2009, we have been deploying time-lapse cameras to monitor penguins year-round all around the Scotia Arc, sub-Antarctic islands and the Antarctic Peninsula in order to better understand how threats to the ecosystem disrupt the dynamics of resident wildlife. We have broadened our scope of work to seabird monitoring in the Arctic region in 2014 and will be launching a new project on seals in the Southern Ocean, in 2019.

Our camera-monitoring program currently consists of over 150 cameras throughout the Southern Ocean and along the Antarctic Peninsula, overlooking colonies of gentoo, chinstrap, Adélie, rockhopper, macaroni, and king penguins, in addition to other seabirds. We have also deployed 15 cameras around the North Atlantic to monitor kittiwakes and guillemots. The cameras take images of the target species year-round and, using these images, we are able to determine the health of the colony by obtaining reproduction survival rates while also observing novel behaviours, such as why and where penguins spend their winter months. We now have millions of images that we are working our way through with the help of our citizen science volunteers. You can help too! Visit our projects’ website to help us count penguins, seabirds and seals.