Automated detection, morphometric measurement, and size-class determination of harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) from UAV orthomosaics: a cascaded deep-learning pipeline with stratified validation across platforms, sensors, altitudes, and substrates
I. A. Usatov, Бурканов Владимир Николаевич, Alexey V. Altukhov, A. Bowker, Chad Nordstrom, Strahan Tucker, Irina S. Trukhanova
This paper develops a deep-learning pipeline for automated harbor seal detection and size-classification from drone imagery, showing high accuracy but variability in thermal vs. RGB performance.
bioRxiv · Oct 8, 2026 · PreprintEcology