That money was invested, not burned. And the payback was huge. This is classical research in aquatic mammals. One of the best tools to study populations and migrations of cetaceans and is being done routinely since a 80's. Marine Theriologists had tried to automatize it for decades

The news here is that has been publicly released. This could mean that the main researcher has quit or retired or that funds dried. We should take in mind that many of this photos depict dead individuals now.