Flying high-tech drones close enough to southern right whales to
catch some of the bugs they blow out will help tell scientists more
about the effects climate change is having on the planet.
An
international team of scientists, led by Otago University marine
biologist Professor Steve Dawson, this week leaves for the wild and
windy subantarctic islands for a month-long expedition to shed more
light on the nutrition of the big ocean mammals.
What insights
they gain will help them discover more about how the species is faring
here and around the world, along with how a warming world is affecting
one of the most sensitive parts of the globe.
From small boats
off the cold and stormy Auckland Islands, about 465km south of Stewart
Island, Dawson and his colleagues will use drones mounted with
cutting-edge photogrammetric camera technology.
The drones, fitted with a specially developed laser
range-finder to measure altitude, will take images of whales precise
enough to take highly detailed measurements from.
"This is really state-of-the-art stuff," Dawson said.
"But
it's also going to be a very challenging part of the world to use this
approach in, because it's extremely windy, wet and cold, and drones
don't like any of those things."
At the same time, they're hoping the drones will be able to collect samples of the whales' blow as they exhale.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/climate-change/news/article.cfm?c_id=26&objectid=11676249
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