There has been a dramatic increase in the number of whales off Ilhabela's coast in recent years. Photo: Reuters
"It's a group of people, volunteers, we work on board and on different boats and we have people looking from land , so we've got very good information about the presence of humpback whales here," said Cardoso, a retiree who set up the whale spotting project, known as Baleia a Vista, in 2015. Palazzo says the work of the self-funded citizen scientist volunteers is"extremely helpful" in the task of tracking the animals, as a lot of conservation projects are underfunded and lack resources.
"Photo ID can give you insights into the life history of individuals, but also allows you to understand population dynamics better by knowing this animal's movements, how they migrate and intersect with other populations," said Palazzo.