Marine Mammals - Sounds Wild
Trail Farms and Mariculture

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Transcript

A sea lion swims through a quiet cove on Kodiak Island on an overcast fall day in 2025. There’s no one here right now, but the cove isn’t empty. This is a mariculture farm, and lines stretch across the water, tethered by colorful floats. Beneath the water, kelp is growing here, and oysters are growing at other locations.  Mariculture is a growing industry in Alaska, and biologists want to learn how sea lions, sea otters and seals interact with farms like these. They are testing to see if trail cameras can help, and cameras have been deployed on Kodiak Island, in Prince William Sound, and in Kachemak Bay.

At this kelp farm in Petersen Bay, three trail cameras on the beach are aimed across the area, taking a set of five pictures and one short video clip every 15 minutes, documenting activity. Biologists are comparing the effectiveness of motion-triggered settings and time lapse settings, and using AI to help sort pictures and flag the ones with animals.  Preliminary results show the cameras are working, documenting the kind of animal, its age class, when they are active, and what they are doing.