Scott Baxter was out for a coastal drive with his family when he sent his drone up over Geographe Bay, about 220 kilometres south of Perth. The whale below him was so long he took it for a small blue whale. It was in fact a fin whale, a species second only to the blue in length and very rarely seen, ABC News reports.
Drone pilots have now photographed two separate fin whales heading north through the bay. One passed within 50 metres of a land-based viewing platform in very shallow water, which Capri Jolliffe of Geographe Marine Research called “incredibly unusual”. The other was around two kilometres offshore.
Fin whales spend most of their time below the surface, so much of what scientists know about them comes from underwater microphones. Marine scientist Vanessa Pirotta of Macquarie University says clear pictures like these add real knowledge about a species still recovering from twentieth-century whaling, and show what citizen scientists can contribute when they follow the drone rules. The migration season continues until late October.
Source: ABC News