Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Using Electric Drones For Aerial Surveillance

An anti-whaling activist group has started using a UAV to supplement manned helicopter flights in its efforts to stop Japanese whaling in the Antarctic ocean.

Osprey Deployed Aboard Sea Shepherd

Members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society say they have been using a hand-launched electric drone with a range of about 180 miles to spot Japanese whaling factory ships. They take advantage of the drone's small size and its video and still image transmission capabilities and GPS tracking to find the whaling vessels while remaining undetected.

The Japanese say the whales they take are for scientific research, but environmental activists have long opposed the practice. The New Zealand Herald reports that the activists take an "anything goes" approach, using tactics including ramming the whaling vessels with their ships in an effort to prevent the taking of whales.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society founder Paul Watson says he hopes the use of the UAV will help end whaling completely. The groups' stated goal is to bankrupt the Japanese whaling industry, and Watson says tracking the ships with the UAV makes it easier for them to disrupt the operations.

The UAV employed by the environmental group aboard its ship MV Steve Irwin is an Osprey built by Hangar 18 in Wichita, KS. The company says on its website that the Osprey is ideally suited as a video downlink platform/vertical photography vehicle or as a UAV trainer. The $20,000 aircraft was donated to Sea Shepherd by New Jersey-based Bayshore Recycling, according to a news release on the group's website. The recycling company reportedly also has paid for the UAV operator training. (Image provided by Sea Shepherd Conservation Society)

FMI: www.seashepherd.org, http://hangar18uav.com/home.html