NOAA takes whale science to new heights

摘要

One spring day, John Durban, a US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries marine mammal biologist, stands on America's California coast and launches an unmanned aerial vehicle into the air. The hexacopter - so called because it has six helicopter-type rotors - zips over the ocean and hovers above a gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) mother and her calf. The pair are migrating north from their calving grounds off Baja California, Mexico, to their summer feeding grounds in the Arctic.