Dave Anderson, who runs whale-watching charters out of Dana Point, Calif., used a small camera-equipped drone to capture video of a "mega-pod" of hundreds of common dolphins as well as three gray whale migrating off the coast of San Clemente. In a separate sortie, the drone returned footage of a family of humpback whales off of Maui.
Anderson, who runs produced the footage into this stunning five-minute video.
"He filmed off a small inflatable boat, launching and catching the quadcopter drone by hand, risking injury from the four propeller blades or loss of the drone."
"He actually lost one drone in January on takeoff when it nicked his small VHF radio antenna on the 14-foot rigid inflatable he was filming from and it went into the water."
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. 9(MDAxNzg0MDExMDEyMTYyMjc1MDE3NGVmMw004))
