Performance of manned and unmanned aerial surveys to collect visual data and imagery for estimating arctic cetacean density and associated uncertainty

Manned aerial surveys have been used successfully for decades to collect data to infer cetacean distribution, density (number of whales/km 2 ), and abundance. Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) have potential to augment or replace some manned aerial surveys for cetaceans. We conducted a three-way comparison among visual observations made by marine mammal observers aboard a Turbo Commander aircraft; imagery autonomously collected by a Nikon D810...