Every year a growing population of humpbacks travel the east coast of Australia to give birth in Hervey Bay. They're on their way home now and I was lucky enough to catch some on camera as they began the trip back to Antarctica. It took me three days of filming to get the shots I wanted but it wasn't too much of a hardship considering I was camping in paradise!
Humpback Whales on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.
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Some very nice footage. Try and keep 500m away or be careful where and how you share as, apparently, there are some hefty fines if the authorities want to make an example out of someone. I used to film dolphins without giving it a second though until I got bailed up by three women screaming at my and even suggesting they would follow me back to my car to get my registration so they could ID me to lodge a complaint. Lucky for me they couldn't move very fast.
Meta4
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And it's all pointless too.
The regulations date back to the early 1980s and are written for real planes and helicopters.
No-one anticipated seagull-sized personal drones back then but the wording in the regulations is vague enough to include your Phantom.
The idea that a whale is going to feel harassed by a Phantom hovering at 50 feet is pretty stupid.
It would definitely notice a Cessna or a helicopter at that distance but it won't even know the Phantom is there.
I'm with you Meta, I said apparently as the savage women were sprouting regulations at me- I haven't researched what the sanctions might be or, more importantly, if anyone flying a drone has been buckled.
I can't see it being too much of a problem, in fact researchers in Western Australia are using drones to study whales because of how non-invasive they are: GALLERY: Aerial view of whales (1) - Australian Geographic
