Whale

Understanding whales has historically been a time-consuming and difficult task for scientists, not least because these magnificent mammals spend about 95% of their days underwater. Now, drone technology is offering a new frontier of vital research.

Anuar Patjane Floriuk’s extraordinary black and white underwater photographs have been winning awards and stunning people around the globe for several years now. His painterly monochrome compositions present an undersea universe from a perspective that evokes a thrilling sense of wonder.

​If you were a whale, chances are you wouldn't like someone following along above you in a motorboat. That's traditionally how researchers ascertain what types of bacteria are present in a whale's exhaled breath, though. Now, scientists have utilized a less intrusive method – they've used a drone.

​Earthrace has been criss-crossing the globe in search of illegal fishing and hunting operations since 2006. Now, the team is trying to create a new trimaran capable of assisting law enforcement on long-range, open-water missions.

New Zealand lists them as a critically threatened species, so catching a Bryde's whale in action is a pretty rare event. One team of marine scientists has not only sighted the endangered cetacean, but done so through the eye of a camera drone, meaning we can all have a gander too.

If you've ever seen a humpback whale's fins, you might have noticed that they have knobby bits along the front edge. These are known as tubercles, and they cause the water to flow over the fins in such a way that extra lift is created. Now, they've been copied in a set of swim fins for humans.

The small bumps on the leading edge of humpback whales' fins have inspired a design for better-performing helicopter rotor blades.

The crew of the Ady Gil had been launching projectiles at a Japanese whaling vessel and attempting to entangle its propeller with rope, when the 1.5 million dollar craft was rammed and sunk by one of the Japanese security vessels.