thanks for this very interesting post! i was also trying to develop an inexpensive camera trap but with not good results. i think the use of a PIR sensor can give more battery life than motion detection via software. Can you give more details about the components you used please?

Thanks
Paolo

I tweeted about it!

Interesting.  A case in point is the viral video making the rounds about drone fishing:

We've seen an array of inventive uses for drones of late across a whole range of endeavors, often having direct or indirect implications for natural resource management.  Using drones to improve our ability to target/hunt species of concern seems at once both a natural progression and something new with a slightly ominous overtone.  This strikes me as one of those moments where we might want to pause and take stock of what is going on with this technology and where it might go in the not too distant future.

Should we ignore this development?  Work to restrict the use of drones for such activities?  Support this?  Regardless of where we might come down on this question, I can't help but fell that this notion of drone fishing certainly seems to have the sense of "crossing the Rubicon" somehow.

http://aarr.piratelab.org/news/drone-fishing/

I'll be entering the Blue Economy Challege. Would be really cool to start a conversation and collaboration between community members here and others who join the challenge. What if entrants to the BEC got a link to WildLabs and invited to join this conversation after they submitted their application?

Algae technology is central to innovation to conserve biodiversity against the threats of climate change.  I am part of a global scientific group called Ocean Foresters.  Our proposed Haven Atoll system aims to use algae to help save coral biodiversity and reduce ocean acidity. We are seeking partners for the Blue Economy Aquaculture Challenge.

In the northern section of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, 95% of the coral is damaged or dead from excessive ocean heat. Coral bleaching is not limited to Australia, but is occurring in every ocean around the world. CO2 emissions are the cause of the crisis, but the real problem now is that emission reductions alone are just too slow to prevent catastrophic biodiversity loss. Immediate steps are needed to reduce the heat, acidity and nutrients that are killing our reefs. Algae is the key to save reefs by providing cooler and cleaner water in atolls. As Dr Tim Flannery argues in his 2015 book Atmosphere of Hope, the Ocean Foresters have presented compelling argument that large scale deployment of artificial forests of seaweeds, kelps and algae is the most promising response to fixing ocean health and removing CO2. 

Ocean Foresters’ key proposal is called Haven Atolls, a system for protecting coral by growing large amounts of marine plants for fuel, food, fertilizer, fabric and fodder. Australia has the need, expertise, resources, locations and innovative culture to lead the world on Haven Atolls, targeted to the coral systems under most threat from global warming. Haven Atolls will produce fresh water, energy and algae products and protect local corals.  Our key innovation is to bring cool nutrient-rich deep ocean water to the surface and feed it into coral atolls for sustainable aquaculture and to cool the coral during heat waves, protecting against global warming. The Haven Atoll will serve as a reservoir of biodiversity to seed reefs destroyed by bleaching. Haven Atolls will serve the global agendas of supporting food security and biodiversity, and will be critical to helping achieve negative carbon emissions, as identified by world governments in the Paris Climate Agreement as necessary to keep warming below two degrees.

Time is the enemy of coral. Our magnificent reefs are dying. Many have gone extinct or will soon. Algae systems can save the reefs while developing technology for sustainable energy and food supply and beginning to remove the dangerous extra carbon that fossil fuels have added to our air and sea. We urgently need partnerships for innovation, to implement rapid practical cost-effective methods to save our precious coral reefs from the looming extinction.

My goto application is CyberTracker. It can be adapted on your desktop exactly to record the data that you want (including pictures and GPS reading, but not compass direction). 

Another option is OruxMaps, free for android, not very intuitive but very powerful. But it's important to bear in mind that phone GPS accuracy can be lower than "traditional" GPS, specially when part of the sky is blocked.

 Here is a test https://blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/2013/07/15/smartphones-tablets-and-gps-accuracy/

Hi Rachel, the link seems to be broken, fyi.

Marie

Hi Marie, 

Thanks for alerting us to a possible broken link. I've just double checked both links Rachel shared and they both appear to be working. Just in case, the links are: 

Working Dogs for Conservation: http://wd4c.org/

Assessment of Detection and Tracking Dog Programs in Africa (PDF): http://files7.design-editor.com/90/9024931/UploadedFiles/520bd328-b718-423f-b041-da20b254e24a.pdf 

Thanks!

Ho John,

That's a great idea and thanks for sharing, but as you said, limitations on battery and speaker capacity abound. Might anyone else have any thoughts on how we could use apps to prevent HWC? There are apps that provide the ability to track wildlife through satellite collars for monitoring purposes. Is anyone aware of whether this type of app is being used also for HWC prevention using geo-fencing through collars or other means? Thanks.

Nilanga

Gautam,

You can join ebird.org and make a request to download their data that contains GPS data for birds. 

Jason

There's also movebank, which is a repository fo wildlife tracking information. 

Hi Lot, great to see you here too. 

Hi Sean, 

Thanks for sharing your survey - is there a specific date you'll be closing the survey? 

It'd be great if you could share the results of the survey here, as I (for one) will be quite interested to see what comes back. 

Cheers, 

Steph