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Dr Rowan Whittle

@rowanwhittlebas.bsky.social
323 followers 170 following 13 posts

Palaeobiologist at the British Antarctic Survey

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Reposted by Dr Rowan Whittle
Cameron Trotter @camerontrotter.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Heading to Honolulu for #ICCV? 🌺 Ease into the week with my talk on automating detection of seafloor organisms around Antarctica for biodiversity monitoring! 🐙 Catch it at the Joint Workshop on Marine Vision, Oct 19, Room 318B, 09:50–10:20. 📄: arxiv.org/abs/2507.21665
Figure 2 from the linked paper, showing our methodology workflow. We take the seafloor training imagery and split it based on substrate, depth, and seafloor angle. This is then patched down and processed using SAHI, which allows us to train an object detection model on a patch-level, retaining resolution. We then postprocess the detections, reprojecting them back to their location on the original image.
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Reposted by Dr Rowan Whittle
Cameron Trotter @camerontrotter.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
🇦🇶 Our new paper detailing the automated detection of Antarctic benthic organisms using high-res in situ imagery has been accepted to the #ICCV2025 Joint Workshop on Marine Vision! 📄 Read the preprint now: arxiv.org/abs/2507.21665 🧵1/4
An example output from our framework. An image of the Antarctic seafloor, with hundreds of organisms on it. The organisms each have a bounding box around them, a class label, and a confidence score produced by our framework.
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Reposted by Dr Rowan Whittle
Cameron Trotter @camerontrotter.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
🚨 New paper 🚨 Benthic ecologist curious about using computer vision? 🤖 Computer scientist wondering how to help protect benthic biodiversity? 🦀 Our latest review bridges the gap between these fields! Check it out: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Surveying the deep: A review of computer vision in the benthos
The analysis of image data for benthic biodiversity monitoring is now commonplace within the domain of marine ecology. Whilst advances in imaging tech…
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Dr Rowan Whittle @rowanwhittlebas.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
We are ready to get off!
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Dr Rowan Whittle @rowanwhittlebas.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
Approaching King George island, on the bridge of the Sir David Attenborough
Captain sailing ship
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Dr Rowan Whittle @rowanwhittlebas.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
We're making the most of our last hot breakfast on board the Sir David Attenborough before being dropped off on King George Island to camp for a month.
People eating breakfast
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Dr Rowan Whittle @rowanwhittlebas.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
King George Island, home for the next month
Snowy rocky island
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Dr Rowan Whittle @rowanwhittlebas.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
We are approaching King George Island and the first big icebergs have appeared!
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Dr Rowan Whittle @rowanwhittlebas.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
We're headed towards the Antarctic Peninsula and it has just started snowing!!
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Dr Rowan Whittle @rowanwhittlebas.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
The wonderful crew of the Sir David Attenborough are helping us with our kit and filling up our water bottles.
Ship's crew members filling water bottles
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Dr Rowan Whittle @rowanwhittlebas.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
Andy our field guide is making sure all our camping equipment is in the right place and Saurav and I are checking we have all the geological equipment
Field guide packingRowan and Saurav
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Dr Rowan Whittle @rowanwhittlebas.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
Today we are in the cargo hold of the Sir David Attenborough, checking our equipment and preparing it for offloading
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Dr Rowan Whittle @rowanwhittlebas.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Following our safety drill on the ship this morning, we carried out the essential field preparation of checking our satellite communications equipment on the ship's deck.
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Dr Rowan Whittle @rowanwhittlebas.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
We are currently sailing through Drake's Passage to King George Island, to collect 26 million year old fossils. This will help us understand how Antarctic sea floor ecosystems evolved. Our team of me, Saurav Dutta (geochemist) and Andy Moles (field guide) will be camping for a month on the island.
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Reposted by Dr Rowan Whittle
Deep Time Ecology group @deeptimeecology.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
Fantastic talk today by @ming-tfk27.bsky.social talking about ecological complexity in the run up to the K-Pg extinction in Seymour Island
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Dr Rowan Whittle @rowanwhittlebas.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
PhD Opportunity: 'Eocene sea-floor ecosystem structure in response to environmental change'. Student will be based at British Antarctic Survey (Cambridge), with Bristol University. Project and contact details: www.bas.ac.uk/wp-content/u... Deadline 13th January www.nercgw4plus.ac.uk/apply
lots of fossils in Antarctica!
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Reposted by Dr Rowan Whittle
Dr Joanne Johnson @geologicaljo.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Starting out in Bluesky with one of my favourite photos of #Antarctica - here I am with a colleague on Lagoon Island, admiring the gorgeous view and the blue sky (very appropriate for this post!!). I'm very lucky to work for @bas.ac.uk 😄 Follow me and you'll see more like this with some geology 🔬
Two people in orange clothing sitting on rocks next to water. In the background are snow covered pointy mountains. The sky above is blue. Photo credit: Joanne Johnson (BAS)
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Reposted by Dr Rowan Whittle
British Antarctic Survey 🐧 @bas.ac.uk · 28/11/2024
Hello Bird Lovers of Bluesky! 🪶 Any chance of adding us to your Feeds? Our team at Bird Island near Antarctica have sent us some cracking bird content to share over the next few weeks... #addBirder #LetsGoBirding #seabirds
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Reposted by Dr Rowan Whittle
Huw Griffiths @huwiceandstuff.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
#Dragons! Face to face with some #Antarctic worms! Collected and photographed by @hwiklund.bsky.social on our @bas.ac.uk expedition to the marine protected area around the South Orkney Islands in Antarctica. 588 species of seafloor worms are currently known from the Southern Ocean!
the face of an Antarctic worm taken by a microscope camerathe face of an Antarctic worm taken by a microscope camerathe face of an Antarctic worm taken by a microscope camerathe face of an Antarctic worm taken by a microscope camera
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Dr Rowan Whittle @rowanwhittlebas.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Hi I am Dr Rowan Whittle. My research is currently focused on protecting Antarctic sea floor ecosystems from environmental change by studying their evolution, their structure, and how they function, as a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the British Antarctic Survey.
Rowan in a boat suit during field party deployment onto Seymour Island 2024person in the snow
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