A Drone Captured These Never-Before-Seen Views of Killer Whales

[undeterred]

Last edited Fri Oct 17, 2014, 01:24 PM - Edit history (1)

The up-close-and-personal photos allow scientists to monitor the imperiled marine mammals' health. Can drones help save the whales?

In August, scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Vancouver Aquarium conducted a series of drone flights over British Columbia’s Johnstone Strait to monitor the health and reproduction of threatened Northern Resident killer whales from 100 feet in the air.

It was the first time researchers had deployed an unmanned aerial vehicle, in this case a six-bladed, remote-controlled helicopter called a hexacopter, to observe orcas. Scientists are trying to determine if the salmon-eating killer whales are getting enough food by analyzing the high-resolution photos to observe the weight of individual animals. They can also see which females are pregnant and confirm the percentage of successful pregnancies.

“We collected just under 20,000 images during 60 flights of 77 Northern Resident killer whales and five transient (mammal eating) killer whales,” John Durban, a population ecologist for NOAA Fisheries, said in an email. Scientists previously used helicopters to observe the Northern Residents and their endangered counterparts, Southern Resident killer whales. But research helicopters are expensive to operate. And because they’re noisy, they must maintain an altitude of 750 feet or greater to avoid disturbing the marine mammals. A quiet, battery-powered drone, on the other hand, can hover as low as 100 feet without the whales even noticing.

“We need overhead images linked to precise altitude in order to estimate size, and we use aerial images of shape to assess body condition,” Durban said. “The hexacopter is small and portable, so it can be used in relatively remote situations.”





Read more: http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/10/16/drone-took-these-never-seen-views-killer-whales?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2014-10-16T

[KT2000]

2. Very cool - thanks! n/t

[woodsprite]

3. Beautiful! Thanks for posting!

My husband hooks is camera to a kite and get's some aerial pics when we are on vacation. I'm always looking to see if he captures something out in the water like that. Of all his pics so far, he's captured pics of a few dolphins off the tip of Ocracoke.