Ocean debris can be deadly for marine life. Everything from discarded fishing gear to domestic plastic can represent a real threat to Whales. Specialists at The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have looked to Engineers for a modern solution.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has been using small boats to free entangled whales at its Hawaiian sanctuary. Up to now, this has been dangerous work for the teams; however, the drone manufacturer DJI is using tech to make whale rescue safer.
Getting up close to Whales has always been dangerous for the rescuers and in 2017, a volunteer was killed after being struck by a whale.
Cutting free a 45-foot, 40-ton free-swimming animal is not an easy task; it can be dangerous NOAA’s Ed Lyman
Additionally, manually untangling the whales required three trips to a trapped whale; once to survey how they were trapped, once to free them and one final time to check they were successful.
The new drone program means the team now only have to visit the site one time. With the drones aerial images the team are able to conduct their initial survey and final assessment without getting to close the huge sea-creatures.
In a video released by DJI (above) you can see exactly how the Phantom 4 Pro it donated to the project is being used.
