Whale and calf photo captured by drone
A drone has helped researchers take pictures and measure whales off the Auckland Islands.
The University of Otago’s research vessel, Polaris II, completed an expedition to document right whales in Port Ross last week.
The expedition to the subantarctic Aucklands Islands included photographic surveys of the whales from small vessels.
The drone was used document the condition each whale.
Expedition leader Professor Steve Dawson said the drone was fitted with a tiny laser range finder.
This allowed researchers to measure the size and shape of right whales, Dawson said.
‘‘This helps us understand the population at the Auckland to of Islands, and is crucial for figuring out why some right whale populations (such as ours) are recover- ing strongly, while others, such as the North Atlantic right whale, are not,’’ he said.
The pictures were taken 25 metres to 35m above the whales, with no reaction from the mammals, he said.
‘‘I don’t think they knew the drone was there, which means this technology provides a powerful non-invasive tool to assess the condition of individual whales.’’
Fine weather meant the drone was used for 136 flights on 12 days.
During that time quality images were taken of 100 individuals.
‘‘That’s a great sample, but we’re most excited about getting measurement images of over 50 mothers and calves because these are the ones driving the population’s recovery.’’ The expedition was funded by the New Zealand Antarctic Research Institute.