Deployment of biologging tags on free swimming large whales using uncrewed aerial systems

• Published in: Royal Society Open Science
• Main Authors: Wiley, David N., Zadra, Christopher J., Friedlaender, Ari S., Parks, Susan E., Pensarosa, Alicia, Rogan, Andy, Alex Shorter, K., Urbán, Jorge, Kerr, Iain
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 2023
• Subjects: Ecology; Conservation and Global Change Biology; Balaenoptera musculus
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10113809/; https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.221376

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 (B. 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 biologging tags to free-swimming large whales quickly and from large distances, potentially increasing success rates, decreasing attempt times, and reducing animal disruption during tagging.