{"id":4118,"date":"2019-11-28T14:20:20","date_gmt":"2019-11-28T14:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/?p=4118"},"modified":"2023-03-22T13:02:15","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T13:02:15","slug":"seals-from-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/2019\/11\/28\/seals-from-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Seals From Space"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Prem Gill (BSc 2017) in Svalbard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard lies deep inside the\nArctic Circle. Nestled between glacial features and vast expanses of tundra,\nits few bright lights represent the northern frontier of civilisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the western coast of these frozen islands sits the tiny settlement of Ny-\u00c5lesund, a former mining town now home to one of the most diverse scientific communities on Earth. It hosts researchers representing ten nations \u2013 and in September, their number was bolstered by Prem Gill (BSc 2017).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conducting science from space<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Having graduated with a degree in Marine Geography, the\npolar conservationist works with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the British\nAntarctic Survey and the Scott-Polar Research Institute to map local animal\npopulations. He was in the region in preparation for a planned trip to the\nAntarctic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted the experience of conducting polar field work in an inaccessible, inhospitable region,\u201d says Prem. \u201cBut more than that, I went out to the North Pole to see the state of the situation.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His work currently focuses on monitoring seals. Why? \u201cWell, Antarctic\nseals are a great indicator for the health of the Antarctic ecosystem,\u201d\nexplains Prem. \u201cThey are the largest consumers of Antarctic krill, which have\nno shortage of predators. The krill themselves are heavily reliant on sea ice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMonitoring krill is difficult,\u201d he adds. \u201cBut by day, the Antarctic\nSeals are just chilling out on the ice. If you can track them and the changes\nin their population you can to some extent ascertain the abundance of krill,\nand in turn assess changes to the polar environment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prem leads a project known as Seals from Space \u2013 and as the\nmoniker suggests, his trip to the Arctic represented a dramatic change in\nworking environment. His work relies heavily on assessing satellite imagery\nfrom his base in Cambridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the last fifteen years, satellite data has rapidly\nincreased: not just in availability but in resolution. You can get imagery from\nanywhere in the world at 30cm, which means that if you left your laptop out there\nthen you would stand a good chance of finding it. So, you see the seals and\neven blood on the ice if one has just given birth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The process of manually counting seal populations is often laborious \u2013 and one that Prem is hoping to automate using artificial intelligence. \u201cIf you spend hours going through an image of sea ice and you find no seals, it\u2019s one of the most soul-destroying processes known to man.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • \"\"<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Changing perceptions and breaking down barriers<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    So, what drives him? Beyond the immediate importance of his\nresearch, Prem is passionate about widening access to the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cWhen you hear the words Antarctic explorer, you might not\nbe imagining a young, brown person,\u201d he says. \u201cYou might be imagining\nsepia-toned photos of white, Victorian people. I wanted to change that. To say\nthat an explorer, or a conservationist, actually looks a lot like me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As well as boosting participation in under-represented\ncommunities, Prem is acutely aware of the barriers to entering his field. He is\nintent on breaking them down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cIf you want to get a foot in conservation, you need\nexperience,\u201d he says. \u201cIn other STEM subjects, you\u2019ll be paid for an internship.\nConservation is different. Not only will you not be paid, you sometimes have to\npay charities for the privilege of working with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Having completed his own undergraduate degree only two years ago, Prem is setting up internships and shadowing schemes for others to gain first-hand experience of the field. One placement will see a STEM undergraduate from an underrepresented background join him on the Seals from Space project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The canary in the climate coalmine<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    He believes that the presence of relatable voices is\ncritical in waking the world up to the dangers of climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cOrdinary people have got immediate threats in their lives:\nto their incomes, to their livelihoods, to X, Y, Z. But who\u2019s raising issues to\ndo with climate awareness? Who are the people trying to make it seem like an\nurgent thing? It\u2019s a very specific group.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cWhen that\u2019s the case,\u201d says Prem. \u201cIt\u2019s probably natural to\nthink it\u2019s an issue for someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Having seen the effects of climate change for himself, he knows\nit to be a serious threat \u2013 and one that is prevailing in our lifetimes. \u201cThe\npolar regions are like the canary in the coalmine,\u201d he explains. \u201cThey\u2019re the\nfirst place you see the effects of climate change occurring.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The melting of the ice fields does not serve simply as a\nwarning. Their role in the global ecosystem is to regulate the temperatures of\noceans all over the world, as well as contain the water that could lead to a\ncatastrophic rise in global sea levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cMy experience in the North Pole was a real eye-opener in\nterms of how the landscape has changed,\u201d Prem says. \u201cWe were being told \u2018you\nknow, there was a glacier that used to extend across this fjord ten years ago\nand now it\u2019s all the way over here\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    He freely admits that experience opened his eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cEven as a climate conservationist, I struggle to see the impact of climate change in the UK,\u201d he admits. “But if you go the Arctic, it\u2019s not gradual. It’s only when those effects hit home that we\u2019re going to realise what\u2019s going on.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"
    It’s not only seals that Prem gets to work with<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prem Gill (BSc 2017) leads the Seals from Space project, working to map Antarctic animal populations. We asked him what it's like to be a polar explorer.","protected":false},"author":904,"featured_media":4124,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cardiff-connect"],"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/904"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4118"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4152,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4118\/revisions\/4152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}