The ethics of flying drones over whales
Raincoast uses drones to study killer whale health…and we always put photography ethics, including the well-being of the whales, first.
Drones have been widely used in the last decade for a host of wildlife studies. They’ve been particularly helpful to advance the scientific understanding of whales, dolphins, and porpoises, because researchers can see deeper into the water from a high angle than from the low-angle perspective offered by boats. This makes it possible to document interactions and behaviours that would otherwise go unseen.
Our photogrammetry research project, which has been ongoing for over ten years, involves taking bird’s eye photos of whales with a drone launched from Raincoast’s research vessel, Achiever. While the drone is up in the air, a designated person on the vessel takes lateral dorsal fin photos of the whales being photographed by the drone. These photos are used to identify individual whales.
When we return from the field, we meticulously take measurements from these photos to determine each whale’s body condition. This evaluation of body condition in killer whales not only helps us, as conservation scientists, to understand the whales’ health and nutritional status, but it also enables us to detect pregnancies.
The legality
It is illegal in Canada to fly drones near any marine mammals below 1,000 feet (about 300 metres) within a half nautical mile (about 900 metres) without a Species at Risk Act (SARA) research permit. In addition, flying a drone above 400 feet is not allowed with a standard drone license. These laws combined make it illegal to fly drones anywhere near marine mammals without special permission.
Our Marine Mammal Research Permit (MML-18) allows us to fly a drone over the whales and also to approach them more closely than other boaters. Under most conditions, however, we can safely operate the drone over the whales while our boat stays well away from them.
Flying with care
A study “Fly with care”, published in Marine Mammal Science by Raincoast scientists and researchers from other institutions, asked the question, ‘can drones disturb the animals that we strive to understand?’ The study analyzed 143 drone flights obtained with a DJI Phantom 4 and Phantom 4 Pro (both used extensively in drone wildlife studies) over 27 days, for 28 beluga herd encounters in the St Lawrence River Estuary.
The footage had been originally collected to study various aspects of beluga behaviour and ecology. Researchers looked at drone altitude, speed, and approach angle, in addition to group size, composition, and behaviour, and evaluated the reaction of the whales based on a series of defined alert and evasive behaviours.
Based on both the results of the video analysis and a review of the literature on cetacean drone disturbance, the paper lists precautionary recommendations to help researchers minimize the potential for negative impacts when using drones to study cetaceans.
The main recommendations are that drone-assisted studies maintain a lower altitude limit of 25 metres, and that large groups of whales be approached with special caution due to the increased likelihood of reactions.
Ethical considerations in media
Raincoast’s policy for photography ethics and our research ethics takes a ‘wildlife welfare’ approach where we always put the wildlife first.
This includes adhering to national, provincial, regional, and other government regulations in the places one is working. We will never bait, lure, use calls or employ other disruptive techniques to engage subjects. To the best of our ability, we will never interfere with an animal if it appears to be engaging in breeding, nesting, or caring for young.
We always allow wildlife subjects to determine the distance they are comfortable with between themselves and the photographer.
There’s also an element of responsibly sharing photos. Appropriately captioning images can have a big impact on the perception of images. For example, when we share the images captured during our photogrammetry project, we always include the SARA research permit information to let people know that we had to hold a permit to capture these specific images. If the photos are significantly cropped, we make a note of that.
You can help
Raincoast’s in-house scientists, collaborating graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and professors make us unique among conservation groups. We work with First Nations, academic institutions, government, and other NGOs to build support and inform decisions that protect aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and the wildlife that depend on them. We conduct ethically applied, process-oriented, and hypothesis-driven research that has immediate and relevant utility for conservation deliberations and the collective body of scientific knowledge.
We investigate to understand coastal species and processes. We inform by bringing science to decision-makers and communities. We inspire action to protect wildlife and wildlife habitats.
