Orca whales are being recorded through the use of a robotic aerial drone, offering a new glimpse into the life cycles of the aquatic creatures. Killer whales are found in oceans throughout the world. Males can weigh up to 22,000 pounds, and females usually top out around 16,500 pounds.
Researchers from NOAA Fisheries worked with partners from the Vancouver Aquarium in order to film the animals.
Northern Resident killer whales living off the coast of British Columbia, a population considered threatened under Canada's Species At Risk Act, were the targets of the study. The drone recorded the animals were recorded as they swam through the Johnstone Strait.
Members of this group of whales eat vast quantities of Chinook salmon, a species which is seeing many of its natural runs threatened by human activities. Some environmentalists believe this population loss among the prey fish may be affecting the Orcas that feed upon them.
Orcinus orcas have been filmed before, usually from helicopters, which need to fly well above the water surface, to prevent spooking the animals. The hexacopter drone was able to fly just a hundred feet above the water without the behemoths taking notice. This was close enough to identify details of individuals that may have gone unnoticed in traditional surveys. This includes measuring how many females are pregnant, and how many of these pregnancies are carried to term. Researchers also count the number of whales, to determine how many perish over time.
"But mortality is a pretty coarse measure of how well the population is doing because the problem, if there is one, has already occurred," John Durban, from the Southwest Fisheries Science Center, said.
Use of the hexacopter "can give us a more sensitive measure that we might be able to respond to before whales die," Durban told the press.
Biologists hope that study of the marine mammals utilizing drones can help researchers learn more about the animals, in order to help preserve the species.
"Killer whales are highly social animals that occur primarily in relatively stable social groups that often range in size from 2 to 15 animals. Larger groups (rarely as large as several hundred individuals) occasionally form, but are usually considered temporary groupings of smaller social units that probably congregate for seasonal concentrations of prey, social interaction, or mating," NOAA officials reported on a Web page describing the animals.
Federal regulations prohibit the operation of drones below 1,000 or 1,500 feet above whale populations, unless a special permit is obtained. Investigators who took these photos obtained the special dispensation prior to flying the hexacopter.
