image: Tagging method overview. A: Looking for whales. B: Launching the drone from the boat. C: Aligning the drone behind the whale prior to tag deployment. D: Tag deployment on the whale via “tap-and-go”. E: Drone return on the boat. F: Data recording on the whale. G: Tag retrieval. H: Data offload and tag reconditioning for the next deployment.
Credit: Vogt et al., 2025, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Specially adapted drones successfully use a "tap and go" approach to apply monitoring tags to whales, speeding up the process and avoiding human interference
Article URL: http://plos.io/4meypZo
Article title: Drone-based application of whale tags: A “tap-and-go” approach for scientific animal-borne investigations
Author countries: U.S., Dominica, Canada
Funding: This study was financially supported by Project CETI (https://www.projectceti.org) via Dalio Philanthropies (https://www.daliophilanthropies.org), OceanX (https://oceanx.org), Sea Grape Foundation (http://www.seagrapefoundation.org), Virgin Unite (https://unite.virgin.com) and Rosamund Zander/Hansjorg Wyss in the form of grants received by DFG, SG and RW through The Audacious Project: a collaborative funding initiative housed at TED (https://www.audaciousproject.org). This study was also financially supported by the National Geographic Society (https://www.nationalgeographic.org/society) in the form of a grant (NGS-72337T-20) received by DFG, SG and RW. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Journal
PLOS One
Article Title
Drone-based application of whale tags: A “tap-and-go” approach for scientific animal-borne investigations
Article Publication Date
13-Aug-2025
COI Statement
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.