Target reached!
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Drone needed to help humpback whales
Iceland
Aim
Help us fund a drone to assess and reveal the impact of entanglement on humpback whales.
ANNOUNCEMENT: A very generous donor has offered to MATCH the final amount raised for the Crowdfunder! This means that all past and future donations will be doubled!
Hi everyone!
Entanglement in fishing gear is one of the greatest threats to whale populations globally. For a humpback whale, entanglement typically involves fishing nets and lines wrapping around their body, tail, flippers or even their mouth – often hindering movement and the ability to feed. Whales can be entangled for many months, even years. For whales who survive, the lines and nets leave clear scars on the whale’s body.
These scars tell stories - stories that can reveal the impact of entanglement on whale health and wellbeing.
With your support, we will purchase a DJI Mavic 3 drone for our vital new research project, Scars from Above. This drone will enable our team to take aerial images of humpback whales around Steingrímsfjörður, a remote fjord in northern Iceland, and use these photographs to assess the hidden impacts of entanglement on animal health.
With your help, we can raise awareness of this important issue, inform future conservation efforts and help protect the lives of whales.
Why is it important for us to protect whales?
“The answer most central to my heart is simply my deep love for whales - their beauty, intelligence, mystery and complexity. Every time I see them is a spiritual experience. I want to provide a healthy ocean that can support as many whales as possible - they give me joy and I believe they can spread joy to others.”
Tom Grove, Whale Wise Co-founder.
Whales play a central role in the ocean environment - they can stimulate plankton and fish stocks, and can even help fight climate change. Just as whales require a healthy ocean, a healthy ocean requires buoyant whale populations. Yet sadly, whale populations are threatened globally. Understanding how human activities impact these populations, and sharing this information with others, is essential to conserve them.
How will your pledge and our Scars from Above project help whales?
Entanglement is a major global threat to whale populations.
For humpbacks, entanglement usually involves fishing nets or lines wrapping around critical parts of their body (e.g. mouth or fluke) - often inhibiting the ability to swim or feed. This entanglement can last for many months or years.
If a whale survives, scars can be seen on the whale's body from where the nets and lines were wrapped around. These scars tell stories that can reveal the impact of entanglement on whale health and wellbeing. We hope to use these stories to inform future conservation efforts.
Scars from Above will use drones to estimate entanglement rate and reveal the hidden consequences of entanglement for living whales.
A Mavic 3 drone will enable us to take aerial images of each whale we see, to then assess scarring patterns to determine its entanglement history and measure its body condition. We can measure its length and width, which can be used to calculate how fat a whale is - the fatter, the better!
To ensure our research has a significant impact on the lives of whales, we will share our research and findings with:
- local communities, including schools to teach children about the issue of entanglement and how to help the whales
- the wider public – via an easy-to-understand report and video to be shared on social media and our website
- the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission – the regional body responsible for the management and conservation of whale populations
- scientists via scientific journals – our method could be applied to species and locations across the world. We could scale up our impact from Icelandic humpbacks to all whale species globally.
A Mavic 3 drone and our Scars from Above project will help us reveal the true impact of entanglement. Through this work, we hope to:
- encourage stronger measures to limit entanglement, such as preventing the discarding of fishing gear at sea and placing acoustic 'pingers' on nets
- engage the public to make informed decisions to reduce their personal impact - whether that's signing a petition or choosing to source fish from MSC-certified fisheries.
When everyone is informed with relevant information, they can make powerful choices to save the whales. Your support can make this happen.
Why do we need a Mavic 3 drone?
For this project, we will be located in a remote area of Iceland without access to a research boat. This means we will conduct our research entirely from land and that the drone we use is extremely important. Land-based research also reduces our impact on the whales, as the drone will be the only instrument near the whales (e.g. no boat).
With a flight time of 46 minutes and range of 15 kilometres, a Mavic 3 drone will greatly reduce our need to travel by car to get closer to the whales - this reduces our fuel costs and carbon footprint. Additionally, we will be able to reach whales further offshore - this is critical. In our previous research, we were limited with the Phantom 4 Pro flight range (only 4 km), and often could not reach the whales.
With your support and a Mavic 3, the research project will be more successful and ultimately better for the whales as this drone is quieter and likely less disturbing.
Didn't you just have a Crowdfunder running for this project?
Yes, we did. Our previous Crowdfunder aimed to cover all costs for the first two years of the project. In the end, with support from 41 generous donors, we raised enough funds to cover the baseline costs needed for the first year of the project. However, the last critical piece we need to ensure the project's success is a Mavic 3 drone.
Specifically we will purchase:
- DJI Mavic 3 Fly More Combo (£2399)
We are extremely grateful to everyone who has already made donations towards this project and Chris Packham for sharing our work. Thanks to your generosity, the project will proceed. Together, we are working to protect the lives of whales.
With your pledge, you will directly support the Scars from Above project, and most importantly, support the whales. Thank you.
Scars from Above partners
Achieving this will require a huge collaborative effort. In Steingrímsfjörður, we will work with Judith Scott, a whale-watching guide for Láki Tours, who has accumulated a huge photo-identification catalogue in recent years. We’ll also continue to work with the University of Iceland. Dr Charla Basran, postdoctoral researcher at the university’s Research Centre in Húsavík, will supervise this project. Meanwhile, we also plan to use drone images collected in Skjálfandi Bay by Maria Glarou, a PhD student, and Prof. Marianne Rasmussen, co-director of the research centre.
About us
Whale Wise is a UK charity focused on marine mammal conservation. We study the interactions, both positive and negative, between whales and human activity. By engaging the public with this research, we strive to inform, promote and inspire marine conservation. Our ultimate goal is the sustainable, respectful use of our ocean.
In recent years our focus has been studying the response of humpback whales to whale-watching vessels in Iceland, working towards a sustainable and more beneficial industry. We use a variety of methods, including blow sampling and behavioural observation. Find out more about this and other projects on our website.
Thank you so much your kind support. Together, we can help protect the lives of whales.
This project successfully funded on 26th July 2022