25/06/2026
🐬🚁 What can a drone tell us about dolphins that a boat can’t?
By taking to the skies, we can observe dolphin groups from above with minimal disturbance, giving us a unique perspective on their behaviour and movements.
Drone surveys help us estimate group sizes, identify mother-calf pairs, document social interactions, and monitor behaviours such as travelling, resting, and feeding. The aerial view also allows us to collect more accurate data than would often be possible from a vessel alone.
But drones are only part of the story. To identify individual dolphins, we still need to photograph them from the boat, capturing the unique nicks, scars, and markings on their dorsal fins. By combining aerial observations with photo-identification, we can better understand population size, site fidelity, and the lives of individual dolphins that call the Maldives home.
