Contradicting height regulations?

[westwind77]

I have flown my drone from my boat a number of times and was thinking of using it next time we take it out to view the whales. I always dig through to see if there are specific regs and sure enough they say you cannot fly less than 150 meters (450') above marine mammals.....yet they don't want you flying above 400' in general.....so....how does one navigate this contradiction? Typically we are about 3 to 9 miles offshore when viewing them.

 

[Meta4]

I always dig through to see if there are specific regs and sure enough they say you cannot fly less than 150 meters (450') above marine mammals.....yet they don't want you flying above 400' in general.....so....how does one navigate this contradiction?

The whale rules will be what was back about 30-40 years ago for planes and helicopters, but in most places they are applied to drones as well.
The rules usually say aircraft without specifying and a lot of authorities will just class your drone as an aircraft.

 

[jlatas]

I have flown my drone from my boat a number of times and was thinking of using it next time we take it out to view the whales. I always dig through to see if there are specific regs and sure enough they say you cannot fly less than 150 meters (450') above marine mammals.....yet they don't want you flying above 400' in general.....so....how does one navigate this contradiction? Typically we are about 3 to 9 miles offshore when viewing them.

Isnt that supposed to mean you shouldnt get closer than 150 meters away from the animals in a horizontal direction?

 

[old man mavic]

if you imagine a bubble around and over the whale it means you cant fly inside that bubble any closer than 150m

 

[dawgpilot]

I have flown my drone from my boat a number of times and was thinking of using it next time we take it out to view the whales. I always dig through to see if there are specific regs and sure enough they say you cannot fly less than 150 meters (450') above marine mammals.....yet they don't want you flying above 400' in general.....so....how does one navigate this contradiction? Typically we are about 3 to 9 miles offshore when viewing them.

It's not a contradiction: the stricter rule applies, so as a drone user you can't fly above those animals at all.

 

[westwind77]

When I searched I was using the term 'whales' and my results listed it at a height of 150 meters, when I went back to search a few moments ago using different terms I received more detailed info (like posted above) being 150m horizontal (bubble) away from them. That is great to know as I can still fly above them for the most part to get the clearest few, but at an angle a bit to give the extra distance needed. You can fly lower with a permit, but they only grant those to researchers, looked into it out of curiosity - which is probably for the better given how some people might abuse it.

Last time we were out we had a humpback following us breaching next to the boat over and over. One of the splashes misted the crew on the bow. It was a calf just being playful. I see boaters 'chasing' the whales trying to get closer but sometime the best thing to do is just find a few and kill the engines. They seem to get curious of you and will approach you vs having the other boaters harassing them.