Need advice on whale watching with drone

[johnr448]

I’m new to droning, but am very much enjoying my Mini 2. I live in the San Diego area and this is the time of year when we have grey whales migrating by our coast. I’ve gone to the beach every day or two all through January trying to get footage of the whales (and, yes, intending to keep a good distance so I don’t scare them), but I just can’t get it to work. About every other time I go out, I’ll spot a whale from the cliffs. I would think I should easily be able to see a whale through the camera view on my display and go in for a little closer look, but what I see with my eyes just never seems to show up in the camera view. I feel like the problem is that there’s no visual queue to help with depth perception over the water, so I just can’t tell if a whale is 1/4 mile away or 3 miles out. Anyone have any tips for this?

 

[Thomas B]

Be sure to check federal laws on how close and how low you can fly relative to the whales...

 

[johnr448]

Be sure to check federal laws on how close and how low you can fly relative to the whales...

Yes — already looked into it. NOAA Fisheries is developing specific guidelines, but currently just advises to keep enough distance to make sure you’re not disturbing them.

 

[Thomas B]

Yes — already looked into it. NOAA Fisheries is developing specific guidelines, but currently just advises to keep enough distance to make sure you’re not disturbing them.

Here’s the link to their recs though. Need to read it all (7or8 pages).

Viewing Marine Life

Watching marine animals in their natural habitat can be a positive way to promote conservation and respect for animals and their environment. But irresponsible human behavior can disturb animals, destroy important habitats, and result in injury to animals

www.fisheries.noaa.gov

Looks like you should be at least 1000-1500’ altitude ... regardless of current laws in place.

 

[African wildlife]

I don't have experience of whales.

With wildlife generally, you have to think one step ahead of their behaviour - which means first knowing their behaviour so you can anticipate what they'll do next. You also need to be a proficient drone flier so that flying a drone is second nature. Everything happens quickly with wildlife (unless it's sleeping lions).

If you can't do the above, you'll unnecessarily disturb the wildlife. Even if you can anticipate and fly properly, you probably shouldn't do so in many instances because it will amount to harassment.

The drones that we are all using on this forum have a fixed lens and this is a wide one. (And, yes, some have digital zooms.) Most wildlife photographs and documentary films are shot with long telephoto lenses as standard. You're close "in" on the subject, plus you won't disturb the animal or animals because you and your equipment are a long or sensible distance away. You're simply not going to achieve anything like the same results with a drone. So you have to think "What am I trying to achieve? And at what price?" Just we've got a drone doesn't mean to say we should always use it.

I can assure you that drones stress all wildlife, even from a sensible distance. This is true also of the Mini 2, despite its smaller size and quieter noise level. I'm definitely not saying "Never", but I would suggest you question what you're doing. The choice is then yours, legal regulations accepted. You're in an incredible part of the world, so you're hardly short of countless other options. And with a good pair of binoculars or a scope, or just with your eyes, you can still appreciate the grey whales - only more so.

 

[chakalakasp]

I don't have experience of whales.

With wildlife generally, you have to think one step ahead of their behaviour - which means first knowing their behaviour so you can anticipate what they'll do next. You also need to be a proficient drone flier so that flying a drone is second nature. Everything happens quickly with wildlife (unless it's sleeping lions).

If you can't do the above, you'll unnecessarily disturb the wildlife. Even if you can anticipate and fly properly, you probably shouldn't do so in many instances because it will amount to harassment.

The drones that we are all using on this forum have a fixed lens and this is a wide one. (And, yes, some have digital zooms.) Most wildlife photographs and documentary films are shot with long telephoto lenses as standard. You're close "in" on the subject, plus you won't disturb the animal or animals because you and your equipment are a long or sensible distance away. You're simply not going to achieve anything like the same results with a drone. So you have to think "What am I trying to achieve? And at what price?" Just we've got a drone doesn't mean to say we should always use it.

I can assure you that drones stress all wildlife, even from a sensible distance. This is true also of the Mini 2, despite its smaller size and quieter noise level. I'm definitely not saying "Never", but I would suggest you question what you're doing. The choice is then yours, legal regulations accepted. You're in an incredible part of the world, so you're hardly short of countless other options. And with a good pair of binoculars or a scope, or just with your eyes, you can still appreciate the grey whales - only more so.

One interesting side note is that in the last decade it seems like a lot of wildlife cinematography and photography has moved from supertele work from a distance to up close with a normal or wide lens. The BBC’s Planet Earth has driven this movement pretty hard with their amazing work.

 

[Meta4]

Anyone have any tips for this?

Unless you are physically quite close to the whale, it's very difficult.
The wideangle lens of the drone camera makes objects look much further away.
You can only see the whale if it's on the surface.
When the whale surfaces, it's hard to know if you need to move to the left or right, further out or closer in.
And unless the sun is behind the drone, glare can make it impossible to see anything clearly.
You can waste a lot of batteries trying and still get nothing to show for it.

 

[African wildlife]

One interesting side note is that in the last decade it seems like a lot of wildlife cinematography and photography has moved from supertele work from a distance to up close with a normal or wide lens. The BBC’s Planet Earth has driven this movement pretty hard with their amazing work.

When wide/normal lenses are used in this situation, they're triggered remotely and the cameras are well hidden/disguised. The BBC unit at Bristol is world-leading and they understand the ethics of filming wildlife.

 

[NLOL]

The general question you are asking is how do you guide the drone to a specific spot when there are no clues visible in the visibility. Water sand corn field snow etc all present this problem.. Perhaps one of these ideas will work for you. First Technically- range finders are commonly used in various shooting sports. Some will read past a mile. That would give you range to match with your drone. I think this has some issues so suggest you find a friend with a good rangefinder interested in the experiment before you consider buying your own

A second approach, fairly practical I think would require a second person some distance left/right of you and a means to communicate. You fly the drone on the bearing to the whale. The other person seeing both the drone and the whale tells you to move the drone keft or right BUT that is not what you do. You fly/keep the drone along your sight line to the whale and move it closer/further from you to achieve the visual affect of left/right seen by the other person. It you fasten a straightened length of coat hanger to your drone, and attached flagging tape, too short to read the props, to the end of the wire, you could greatly increase drone visibilty.

 

[RangerEd]

Boats have to maintain 100 yards distance so I would think as long as you're not directly over it, you could probably use the same guideline.

 

[Chip]

Whale watching via drone seems like lots of fun. But yes, be very careful of drone and whale police. Double the trouble. Can be very strict penalties for "harassing" whales even though the marine biologists involved with the snot project linked below make very clear that hovering over a whale at low altitude has zero negative effect.

 

[dronerat]

I’m new to droning, but am very much enjoying my Mini 2. I live in the San Diego area and this is the time of year when we have grey whales migrating by our coast. I’ve gone to the beach every day or two all through January trying to get footage of the whales (and, yes, intending to keep a good distance so I don’t scare them), but I just can’t get it to work. About every other time I go out, I’ll spot a whale from the cliffs. I would think I should easily be able to see a whale through the camera view on my display and go in for a little closer look, but what I see with my eyes just never seems to show up in the camera view. I feel like the problem is that there’s no visual queue to help with depth perception over the water, so I just can’t tell if a whale is 1/4 mile away or 3 miles out. Anyone have any tips for this?

Did you ever get success with photographing whales?

I have been watching for them every day the last week, and saw some off shore twice…but both times once i flew the drone out I could see NOTHING.

I dont understand it. I have had success with smaller marine animals, including sharks, dolphins and manta rays and tuna fish. I can find small seagulls on the surface and even pieces of seaweed. I am able to see the depression formed by the rip tide on the ground with my drone too…but no whales, never. I dont get it.

How do you find them?

 

[Torque]

If you are in Washington state you must maintain 200 yards between the whale(s) and your boat/drone/paddleboard.

 

[bitsbytes]

Here’s the link to their recs though. Need to read it all (7or8 pages).

Viewing Marine Life

Watching marine animals in their natural habitat can be a positive way to promote conservation and respect for animals and their environment. But irresponsible human behavior can disturb animals, destroy important habitats, and result in injury to animals

www.fisheries.noaa.gov

Looks like you should be at least 1000-1500’ altitude ... regardless of current laws in place.

"Maintain a 1,000-foot minimum altitude when viewing marine mammals from the air in manned aircraft"
There is no minimum distance for drones, but obviously keep your distance. Better if you have something like the Mavic 3 7x camera that you can do it without disturbing them.

 

[MS Coast]

Whale watching via drone seems like lots of fun. But yes, be very careful of drone and whale police. Double the trouble. Can be very strict penalties for "harassing" whales even though the marine biologists involved with the snot project linked below make very clear that hovering over a whale at low altitude has zero negative effect.

Good video. Thanks for posting. What an interesting project to work on, either the biology side or the drone side.

If that's a $3000 DJI drone, as he says, put me down for two.