Friday, November 16, 2012

Whale Protected Areas Google Earth

Just a shortie this time. I just found this one online, Google Earth's Whale Protected Areas 3D tour. Very cool and informative! 



Here's what the video information on YouTube said about the project:



Meet sperm whales, humpback whales and blue whales in the special places where they live. This Google Earth Tour, narrated by Dan Laffoley, Marine Vice Chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s World Commission on Protected Areas, follows the migrations of whales above and below the surface and visits some of the key marine protected areas and sanctuaries for whales around the world. Join the blue whale in the US national marine sanctuaries off California and journey to the proposed Costa Rica Dome Marine Protected Area in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, one of the key areas being proposed as part of the "Homes for Whales" project of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. Follow the humpbacks on migration, from their breeding grounds to the feeding areas in the North Atlantic around the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, and visit one of the most recent protected areas, the Agoa Sanctuary in the French Caribbean. This animated Google Earth Tour was first presented as part of a keynote lecture by Dan Laffoley (IUCN) at the opening of the 2nd International Conference on Marine Mammal Protected Areas (ICMMPA) on 7 November 2011 in the Atrium, Fort-de-France, Martinique. It was prepared with the help of Jenifer Austin Foulkes (Google), Charlotte Vick (Sylvia Earle Alliance/Mission Blue) and Erich Hoyt (Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society/IUCN).


Makes me wonder, how do we enter the Indonesian data to this site?... Hmm... interesting. 

Also, the International Committee for Marine Mammal Protected Areas (ICMMPA) have just launched their Proceeding of the 2nd ICMMPA Conference held last year (November 7-11, 2011) in Martinique, Fort du France, Atrium. Click this site for the PDF download. Pretty thick, 112 pp, but seems to be interesting. I've finished printing it and hope to read it sometime during the weekend (yes, my weekend is divided between leisure and cetacean to-do stuffs!).

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