Growth and opportunities for drone surveillance in pinniped research

Abstract Pinniped species undergo uniquely amphibious life histories that make them valuable subjects for many domains of research. research has often progressed hand‐in‐hand with technological frontiers wildlife biology, and drones represent a leap forward methods aerial remote sensing, enabling data collection, integration at new scales biological importance. Drone types provide four key opportunities surveillance are already advancing pinniped management: 1) repeat on‐demand surveillance, 2) high‐resolution coverage large extents, 3) morphometric photogrammetry, 4) computer vision deep learning applications. early stages adoption can reshape the field as they scale towards full potential their techniques.