Stunning dolphin drone footage in Southland could help conservation artificial intelligence
Wednesday, 12 January 2022
Drone footage of endangered dolphins swimming with paddleboarders in Southland could help artificial intelligence, which is being used for conservation.
Ross Trafford filmed the playful pod in Te Waewae Bay, about an hours drive west of Invercargill, on January 9.
“I thought it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I’ll never get a chance to film that again,” Trafford said.
The footage appears to show at least 16 dolphins.
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Trafford said he technically broke the drone-use rules however, once he had the footage he contacted the Department of Conservation to let them know.
DOC said it had been deemed an unplanned wildlife encounter because the dolphins had swum into the frame, and not something that was intended. Trafford was not deliberately in breach of the rules and had done the right thing by contacting them, DOC said.
“I really like the idea that the footage could help DOC,” Trafford said.
The Department of Conservation lists Hector’s dolphins as “nationally vulnerable”, meaning the species faces a high risk of extinction in the medium term.
DOC says there are about 15,000 of the dolphins over the age of one year old.
Hector’s dolphins look like the critically endangered Māui dolphins, of which there are between 48 and 64 left.
Māui and Hector's are subspecies of the same species. They are the only New Zealand dolphins with a flat, black dorsal fin that looks like one of Mickey Mouse’s ears, according to DOC.
The footage was captured in the spur of the moment, and thankfully Trafford always travelled with his drone.
He and his partner were on holiday from the North Island. Two people seen in the video wearing wetsuits were locals, Trafford said, and they told him they had never seen that many dolphins there.
“You can see the dolphins want to interact with the boards,” Trafford said.
As he stood on the beach flying the drone, the sunny Southland day made it difficult to see his video screen properly, so he was unaware of how many dolphins he had actually filmed.
An experienced drone user, Trafford said fellow-flyers needed to be aware of rules, which required permission to film over private land, and specific rules for filming at a DOC site or animals at sea.
“Flying drones in the vicinity of marine mammals (such as whales, dolphins, and seals) can be highly disturbing. Even though an animal might not appear to be disturbed, it could be quite stressed,” DOC says.
Trafford said he understood his footage did not break this rule because the animals swam into his frame.