Another great collaborative project leveraging GUS' drone expertise and Murdoch Unversity's quest for ground-breaking marine research. It was fantastic to work with the Murdoch University Cetacean Research Unit (MUCRU) to develop an innovative approach to measuring the body condition of whales.
This ground breaking research recieved global news coverage including this article published in the Australian and the video of a white whale calf in the video link below.
Dr Fredrick Christian has also gone on to publish a study on the noise impact of drones on whales, with findings suggesting that the underwater noise effect from drones is small, even for animals close to the water surface.