DigitalGlobe’s QuickBird satellite imagery is being used to support a wildlife observation study in Bristol Bay and the Bering Sea, Alaska. The imagery, purchased by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the Marine Mammals Management Office, is being used to track the populations of the Pacific walrus–a species that spends winters in the Bering Sea’s pack ice and springs in the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska.

The 60-centimeter resolution of the imagery allows the research team to view individual walrus. This is the first space-borne solution that is able to show individual walrus, thereby providing more effective data, DigitalGlobe said.