{"id":800352,"date":"2026-08-03T02:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T02:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/800352\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T02:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T02:18:08","slug":"uh-researchers-use-drones-to-tag-humpback-whales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/800352\/","title":{"rendered":"UH researchers use drones to tag humpback whales"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) &#8211; University of Hawaii researchers are using drones to tag humpback whales to expand critical research and reduce disturbance to the animals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Scientists with UH Manoa\u2019s Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP) traditionally tagged whales from boats using a long carbon fiber pole. During fieldwork off Maui in February, the team pivoted, deploying noninvasive suction-cup tags directly from drones instead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Researchers said this remote method allows them to remain hundreds of meters away from the animals while still collecting detailed information on their movement and energy use.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIt\u2019s a complete game changer,\u201d said Lars Bejder, director of the Marine Mammal Research Program. \u201cWe\u2019re putting less pressure on the animals. We don\u2019t have to get close to them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The team successfully deployed 22 tags on lactating females, a calf, and adult males during the trial.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cSo some of these unanswered questions that we haven\u2019t been able to address, we can now suddenly address with this new technology,\u201d Bejder said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The collected data will help researchers better understand how whales respond to environmental stressors like climate events, vessel traffic, and military activity, ultimately guiding future conservation and management efforts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The fieldwork was supported by the Office of Naval Research, the U.S. Navy\u2019s Living Marine Resources program, Dolphin Quest, and private donations.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) &#8211; University of Hawaii researchers are using drones to tag humpback whales to expand critical research&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-800352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}