The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will continue using unmanned aircraft systems to monitor mammals in the Hawaiian archipelago after the successful trial use of a hexacopter to study mammals in the Hawaiian Islands earlier this summer.




Before using the hexacopter, NOAA had previously tried to track and record data on mammals from boats, but in certain instances, the mammals were frightened when they were being shadowed by the boats, so they would disappear before all of the pertinent information necessary could be recorded.




But now, with the capabilities of a UAS to provide a remote point of view, researchers can not only record data without scaring off their subjects, but they can also take pictures from unique perspectives. The hexacopter is capable of carrying larger, more high-tech cameras than the average unmanned system.




Through an excerpt from an interview with UAS Vision published on CS Monitor, CEO of Ocean Alliance Iain Kerr said that the use of UAS was very important when it came to observing wildlife at sea.




“If we truly want to understand what effects humanity is having on wildlife, we need to study them in a noninvasive manner,” said Kerr. “Today's drones are the ultimate realization of noninvasive research.”




According to the NOAA website, scientists will also use unmanned systems to track artic changes on the high seas and mapping marshes to track where humans shouldn’t travel.




Photo: NOAA

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