New to forum from Tasmania

[Jeffdj]

Unfortunately the national parks part isn't a local law, its national as by definition a drone (RPA) is an aircraft and that's where the restriction is applied

Yes this is a ridiculous classification, it means you can legally fly a 747 just 300m above whales. Saying a small drone is an aircraft in the same category as conventional aircraft is either careless or a deliberate move to limit drone activity. I did some test with a sleeping seal and can honestly say that it continued to sleep when i was only about 15m above it. I have flown over whales and never seen any sign of them being disturbed or changing their behaviour. This is the obvious rule that needs to be followed. We love taking video/photos of wildlife from our drones, shots that are impossible with other methods but we want to show them in a natural environment behaving naturally.
I was criticized for taking these shots.

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[MAvic_South_Oz]

I'm not 100% about who the creator is of the general standard for flying near marine mammals, it certainly isn't CASA.
It's probably some federal National Parks standard, or maybe fisheries ?

The diagrams most of our states natural environment departments put out is this . . .



It's obviously been drawn up for sightseeing aircraft (light planes and helicopters), but adopted by State parks administrators as rules for drones too.
I snipped this from NSW Parks website, it's the same one SA uses and I assume others.

Interesting, they obviously consider helis to require more distance than a light plane, rotor beat most likely.

I agree, most whales seem curious, and often go right up to watercraft, breaching etc very close, eyeballing kayakers, swimmers / divers.
A drone would not disturb them from what I can see in that scenario.

Seals basking on a beach / rocks ?
Yeah, a drone might cause some distress / anxiety in that situation, so I guess the usual (easy) blanket rule covers it all.