Whale Tracking: Software System for the Acquisition, Management and Processing of Data on the Blue Whale at Offshore

The acquisition of information in the field is one of the main activities in any type of research, advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have allowed the development of hardware and software tools that researchers to acquire information from a more efficient and effective way; however, there are still situations in which it is not possible to apply these tools because they are not compatible with using them in the conditions of the environment or that do not adapt to the specific needs of users. In animal monitoring these difficulties are continually presented, this is due to the fact that this type of research is carried out in environments where the use of technologies is limited. In this paper we present a system to aid in the acquisition, management and processing of data in the field, in particular, the case of Blue Whale research is presented. Research on this species is conducted in the Gulf of Cortes, Mexico, under conditions where is not possible to use commercial technologies of data acquisition and processing. The proposed system allows researchers to acquire the necessary information from the Blue Whale during the monitoring process. It also offers the option to generate automated reports of the sightings done without needing to require another type of computing device or re-capture the information in another system.