How Tethys turns images into policy for the future of our oceans

Fifteen years is a long time, by any measure. But, in the world of marine conservation, it feels like a lifetime. In 2001, the climate crisis was spoken of as a future event. Today, our oceans are arguably feeling the biggest impact. And Canon Italy has been right alongside the Tethys Research Institute during this time, as it conducts critical scientific research which has long term impact far beyond the Mediterranean.

“Photo identification of different species is so important to our data analyses,” explains Sabina Airoldi, Senior Project Director at Tethys. “We have photo identified thousands of animals in the Pelagos Sanctuary, including 230 sperm whales and more than 700 fin whales”. The Sanctuary, a Specially Protected Area of Mediterranean Importance is a major hotspot of marine biodiversity in the north-western Mediterranean and was established by Italy, France and Monaco to protect Mediterranean marine mammals and their habitat.

It is here that the team at Tethys are able to follow their progress over months and years and, through global partnerships, follow them as they travel. “Five of the Mediterranean species are considered endangered. So, with just a Canon camera and lens, we can reconstruct the movements of these animals,” she explains. “We can assign them names and codes, and this helps us to understand population sizes and mortality rates over time”.

They achieve this with a core team of ten researchers, supplemented from May to October by another ten to fifteen from all over the world. This is when they work in shifts of three to four weeks at sea, constantly monitoring and photographing these animals. “It's really hard work,” she says. “We begin at seven in the morning and sometimes don’t finish inputting the day’s data until 2am.”

And because of strict conservation guidelines governing the sanctuary waters occupied by wild whales and dolphins, the teams must conduct their image gathering from the boat. This is why they require powerful imaging tools to be able to accurately capture the most subtle identifiers of each animal. “Unique natural marks help us,” she explains. “On dolphins, for example, we use the dorsal fin. On Sperm whales, we use the ventral part of the flukes [the flat part of a tail fin] and with fin whales we take pictures of the right part of the head, where the blaze [a pale streak behind the eye] and chevron [a V-shaped marking on the back] is as individual as a fingerprint.”

Their long-term relationship with Canon Italy means that the Tethys Institute has had access to state-of-the-art cameras and lenses to gather this most challenging and dynamic of data. Most recently, that is the EOS R system, which Sabina describes as having “extremely fast autofocus, and that’s really the most important feature for us”, but is also ideal for their round-the-clock work over long distances and in difficult lighting. Any camera they use also needs to be able to work quickly and smoothly with their data analysis software – because the last thing they need is any kind of tech-related stress at 2am, at sea and in the dark.

“Our mission is to produce very robust scientific data, which we can present to governments to influence the protection measures they make in the future,” Sabina states. And it works – Tethys has been responsible for both the reclassification of conservation status for five species by the IUCN, contributing also to the establishment of a PSSA(Particularly Sensitive Sea Area) in the North-Western Mediterranean Sea. “We discovered, thanks to our research, that when ships travel below a speed of ten knots, the risk of fin and sperm whales being hit by commercial ships decreases significantly. So, we are now working closely with the Italian Coast Guard to reduce the risk of ship strikes involving them, raising awareness among shipping companies and encouraging vessels to reduce their speed when whales are reported in the area.” And, while the reporting and cataloguing of sightings is absolutely key to this mission, there is also a significant element of public awareness which is necessary to support their work.

The stories of two sperm whales in particular captured the public imagination – Freddy and Canon (yes, in honour of the longstanding partnership!). Canon was first sighted in 2016 and many further times from 2019 to 2023. However, in 2021 and 2023, Canon was spotted side by with Freddy whom, it was quickly noted, had a deep gash on his back, likely caused by a collision or accidental entanglement in a fishing net. This injury was clear evidence of human-created risk in a critical environment for sperm whales and Tethys was able to tell the story of Canon and Freddy over a number of years. They tracked Freddy’s healing and watched them return time and again to the Pelagos Sanctuary.

However, these seemingly small stories are part of a huge and dedicated network that Tethys is proud to be a part of. “Our study area is more than 25,000 square kilometres, but these animals move a lot. So, actually they are just passing through,” she explains. “We put in a huge amount of effort to collaborate with other institutes and now have a really strong network. Because if you don't share data, you can't get the robust results you need. The end goal is to protect these animals.” So, every time a researcher lifts their EOS R to photograph a whale, a dolphin or any number of other protected species, the image travels. And it creates a global picture that translates into action for all our oceans.

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