Supplementary material from "Deployment of biologging tags on free swimming large whales using uncrewed aerial systems" ...

• Main Authors: Wiley, David N., Zadra, Christopher J., Friedleander, Ari S., Parks, Susan E., Pensarosa, Alicia, Rogan, Andy, Alex Shorter, K., Urbán, Jorge, Kerr, Iain
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: The Royal Society 2023
• Subjects: Biotechnology; Environmental Science; 60801 Animal Behaviour; FOS Biological sciences; Balaenoptera musculus; Balaenoptera physalus
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6566719.v1; https://rs.figshare.com/collections/Supplementary_material_from_Deployment_of_biologging_tags_on_free_swimming_large_whales_using_uncrewed_aerial_systems_/6566719/1

Suction-cup-attached biologging tags have led to major advances in our understanding of large whale behaviour. Getting close enough to a whale at sea to safely attach a tag is a major limiting factor when deploying these systems. Here we present an uncrewed aerial system (UAS) based tagging technique for free-swimming large whales and provide data on efficacy from field testing on blue ( Balaenoptera musculus ) and fin ( Balaenoptera physalus ) whales. Rapid transit speed and the bird's-eye view of the animal during UAS tagging contributed to the technique's success. During 8 days of field testing, we had 29 occasions when a focal animal was identified for attempted tagging and tags were successfully attached 21 times. The technique was efficient, with mean flight time of 2 min 45 s from launch to deployment and a mean distance of 490 m from the launch vessel to tagged animal, reducing potential adverse effects resulting from close approaches for tagging. These data indicate that UAS are capable of attaching ...