The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales (WTSWW) is using remote monitoring to livestream about birds, by using network cameras from Axis Communications. Off the coast of Pembrokeshire in West Wales, Skomer Island is a 720-acre National Nature Reserve designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest and Special Protection Area. As one of the most important seabird islands in the world, it is home to more than 41,000 puffins and the largest colony of Manx shearwaters; about 350,000 breeding pairs.
WTSWW initially upgraded its old analogue system which just sent footage to a monitoring station. The first upgrade, however, did not handle the salt air, and the cameras malfunctioned. The Trust raised funds for the Axis cameras and the Pembrokeshire based installer Dragon WiFi had the task of connecting Skomer Island and its wildlife to the viewing public via livestream.
Remote connectivity
As for setting up camera hardware on Skomer, burrowing by the island’s resident wildlife did undermine an installation of a pole mounted on a concrete block, for example. Guy Farley, Managing Director of Dragon WiFi, said: “It’s not your typical site, it’s off-grid, which makes Wi-Fi critical for the island. But there’s no broadband connection under the water, and no fibre. We had to be creative, so we attached their visitor centre on the mainland to our wireless broadband mast, then set up a wireless link over to the island which is two miles away.”
While connectivity with the mainline was a challenge, setting up a running system with Axis hardware was straightforward, according to the installation company. Guy said “For a task like this, where we were looking to establish YouTube streaming, it was perfect. We’re also partnered with livestreaming provider CamStreamer, and the integrations between that software and Axis hardware are excellent. Install the app, and we’ve got remote access to the cameras – no fiddling with routers or port forwarding. We’ve also fallen in love with AXIS Camera Station Edge: no quibble, no codecs needed. It just works.”
Education
Streamed free to YouTube during the breeding season between March and September, views on the new Skomer Island livestream exceeded 120,000 in its first season. Grace Hunt, Communications Officer for WTSWW, custodian of over 100 reserves in Wales, said: “It’s a great customer experience and education tool, fantastic for inspiring the next generation of conservationists.”
As for reasons to watch Skomer Island’s webcams, Grace adds: “One is accessibility – the Trust is passionate about making sure people can connect with nature. Visiting Skomer can be difficult, for some people it’s just not possible, so a livestream is an attractive alternative. In addition, we use our Axis cameras for research and science, looking at the behaviour of the native wildlife and adding to our conservation work; and there’s a safety component – the cameras help us assess the state of the island remotely, and decide whether the weather is safe enough for us to make a boat landing.”
WTSWW hopes to promote livestream footage further in coming seasons, using it to raise the Trust’s profile and encourage new memberships.
View live: https://www.youtube.com/@WelshwildlifeOrgWTSWW/streams.
Full case study on the Axis website: https://www.axis.com/customer-story/educating-the-world-about-remote-wildlife-through-livestream.
Photo of puffins on Skomer Island by: Mike Alexander
