The Vancouver Aquarium used a drone to capture world-first footage of Killer Whales from above.
This may be my favorite photo in a long time:
The Vancouver Aquarium blog wrote:
“The interesting news: where do I start? We saw fish chases, youngsters playing, a great deal of touching and social behaviour within family groups, killer whales and dolphins swimming together peacefully and much more. The bottom line is that the method worked wonderfully well. We are convinced now that Mobly—or one of his cousins—will be an invaluable part of our research program for years to come, as we focus on recovering resident killer whale populations by, among other things, ensuring they have enough to eat.”
“Helicopters are noisy and disruptive to the whales. Even if a research team could afford one (helicopters are expensive – and we all know how filthy rich scientists are), the helicopter would have to be operated high above the water, making it it difficult to acquire quality images of the whales.”
“Mobly performed like a dream – steady, stable, and quiet. The images of the whales were stunning, and revealed right away that we weren’t going to have difficulty distinguishing robust and thin whales. We could readily identify individuals based on scratches and scars on theirs saddle patches, which were easier to see from above than I expected, and we could positively identify pregnant females. Most importantly, the whales didn’t react to Mobly visibly; not only did they not appear disturbed, they didn’t seem to notice him at all.”
Amazing Above-View of Killer Whales Living Together - Drone
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