Wild whales can now be weighed with DRONE footage

Scientists can now weigh wild whales using remote-controlled drones hovering above them. In the past it has only been possible to measure the weight of free-living whales if they were dead and out of the water or stranded on a beach. But researchers have released aerial footage of them flying a drone over a mother and baby southern right whale, near Argentina, to work out how much they weigh. They can do this by taking photographs to work out the length, width and height of the animal. This can then be compared to past measurements of the density of that particular species of whale's body, to estimate its volume and weight.