Effective, cost-limited and easy-to-implement photo-identification from fishing vessels: an alternative to no effort at all

Photo-identification is a technique that uses photographs of animals to identify individuals through natural markings visible on their body and is central for research on cetaceans. Best gear configuration to conduct photo-identification consists in a SLR camera equipped with a 100-400 mm lens. This paper addresses concerns regarding the complexity and the price of the SLR gear by presenting the first trials of a cost-limited bridge camera as an alternative to no photo-identification. This bridge configuration will not match the SLR configuration, especially when animals are far from the observer but can give good results at shorter distances especially when animals are strongly marked.