Scientists Use Drones To Study Whales, Dolphins Off Hawaii For The First Time

Instead of the usual small survey boats, researchers worked off of a large ship and used a hexacopter drone to photograph the whales and dolphins — something that has not been employed before in this region. The leader of NOAA’s expedition Erin Oleson explained that using drones allowed researchers to get better images of groups of whales since they were not disturbed by an approaching boat.