Transport Canada’s MSS 6000 equipped aircraft does Surveillance flights to spot and position right whales in Gulf of St Lawrence
An unprecedented high number of right whales have died in the past 2.5 months in the Gulf of St. Lawrence off Canada’s eastern coast. Many of them have been hit by ships or been entangled in fishing nets. Right whales are a highly endangered species and the population is believed to be around 450 and at least 13 of these have died. Transport Canada has been flying daily surveillance flights to confirm position of the whales and for the purpose of redirecting and slowing down ship traffic. The photo below was taken with the camera of the MSS 6000 system. The Transport Canada observers found that the MSS 6000 camera with annotated position and the target data were very useful when finding and tracking the whales.
Government Canada is continuing its actions to try to find a solution to the problem and is cooperating with scientific experts, industry, environmental groups etc. Read the full article here.<https://www.canada.ca/en/transport-canada/news/2017/08/government_of_canadasactionstodateonnorthatlanticrightwhales.html>
Transport Canada will continue surveillance flights to confirm positions of live right whales. It is nice to know that the MSS 6000 is part of this important work.