With the advent of WhaleWatch, we knew that monthly predictions and 0.25° were too coarse to inform fine scale management decisions yet that was the best we could do with the environmental data we had available. In two short years, we have now updated the model to an ensemble of multiple modeling approaches, and moved from predictions using satellite data to higher resolution ocean model output (daily and 0.10 °). Briana also used a thorough dataset of independent data to check the model’s accuracy and found very good performance, particularly during the peak of whale migration. Improving and assessing the accuracy of operational tools is a necessity, but one that we would not have been able to accomplish without support from the Benioff Ocean Initiative.
B. Abrahms, H. Welch, S. Brodie, M.G. Jacox, E.A. Becker, S.J. Bograd, L.M. Irvine, D.M. Palacios, B.R. Mate, and E.L. Hazen, 2019. Dynamic ensemble models to predict distributions and anthropogenic risk exposure for highly mobile species. Diversity and Distributions. doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12940 PDF