New England Aquarium is Using Drones to Give Whales a Health Check

How do you check the health of a 50-ton, critically endangered whale without stressing it out? For years, the answer involved chasing it in a loud boat. Now, scientists at the New England Aquarium have a much better, quieter, and more powerful tool: a drone.

A team from the Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center is deploying Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) to study the handful of North Atlantic right whales left in the world, as the Cape Cod times told us. Using a technique called photogrammetry, they are giving these gentle giants a health check-up from the sky in a way that is “truly non-invasive.”

A Doctor’s Visit from 400 Feet

With only around 370 North Atlantic right whales remaining, every individual counts. Understanding their health is critical to saving the species. Senior Scientist John Durban and his team are using drones to do just that. They fly a drone high above a whale, capturing a series of high-resolution, overlapping photos.

This is photogrammetry. The 2D images are then stitched together by powerful software to create a precise 3D model of the whale. From this model, the scientists can accurately measure the whale’s body condition, its length, and its width. This allows them to track growth in young whales and to see if the adults are getting enough to eat. It’s a non-invasive way to tell if a whale is thriving or starving.

Following the Food, Finding the Danger

This research is about more than just the whales; it’s about their environment. Climate change is warming the oceans, and that’s shifting the location of the tiny organisms, called zooplankton, that these whales feed on. The whales are forced to follow their food source into new, colder waters.

The problem? These new feeding grounds are often outside of protected marine areas, putting the whales at a much higher risk of two of their biggest threats: entanglement in fishing gear and strikes from large ships.

The data gathered by the drones is providing a direct link between the changing climate and the declining health of the whale population. It’s critical information that can be used to advocate for new protections and to help prevent these majestic animals from going extinct.

The Right Tech for a Delicate Mission

The drone used for this work is a custom-made from the company Aerial Imaging Solutions with a high-resolution camera to capture the detailed images needed for photogrammetry, and the ability to fly reliably in a challenging marine environment.

By flying at a high altitude (around 120 meters or 400 feet), this drone is practically invisible and inaudible to the whales, allowing them to go about their business completely undisturbed. It’s a far cry from the old days of pursuing them with a noisy boat, and it provides much better data.

DroneXL’s Take

There are moments when the power and purpose of our technology come into perfect, beautiful focus. This is one of those moments. The idea of using a drone, a tool of perspective, to help save a species on the brink of extinction is just profoundly moving.

“Real talk,” the skill involved in this work is immense. Flying over the open ocean, trying to locate a target that only surfaces for a few moments at a time, and then executing a perfect photogrammetry pass in unpredictable winds is incredibly difficult. The pilots and scientists doing this work are at the absolute top of their game.

This is a story about a more gentle, more respectful way of engaging with our planet. For centuries, studying the natural world often meant capturing it, tagging it, or disturbing it. The drone allows us to be silent witnesses. It allows us to gather intimate, crucial data without leaving a trace, without causing a ripple.

This is the kind of work that makes me proud to be a part of the drone community. It’s not just a hobby or a profession; it’s a tool that, in the right hands, can genuinely make the world a better place. The 370 remaining North Atlantic right whales are lucky to have a team like this watching over them from above.

Photo credit: Dr. John Durban/New England Aquarium