PHOTOS SUPPLIED
AN eye in the sky looking out for Māui dolphins off the King Country coast has had its leash extended by the CAA.
A project aimed at protecting Māui dolphins using drone monitoring technology has been granted beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) approval by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), to enable tracking of the threatened mammal.
Tane van der Boon from MAUI63, the non-profit wildlife technology organisation that has successfully developed a drone capable of finding and tracking Māui dolphins using artificial intelligence (AI), says gaining the CAA approval is a “huge win”.
“To effectively track the Māui dolphins, we need BVLOS to fly far offshore, to survey their entire habitat,” Tane said.
“We’ll be able to get out and survey up to 50km away from the pilot in a single flight without any observers required for spotting the drone or surrounding airspace. This will take our work to the next level and allow us to collect better data than ever before.
“We’ll be able to monitor the dolphins continuously, which will help us predict their movements more accurately, and better understand the ecology of this species.”
The information obtained will be shared with “anyone who needs it”. The approval is for a 50km stretch of ocean off the west coast of Aotearoa’s North Island, where Māui dolphins live.
The drone has a six-hour range and a speed of 120km/h. It is currently under maintenance but expected to be back flying towards the end of the month.
Currently it’s flying from Kariotahi and Hamilton’s Gap, from where Tane said they could get quite a way down the coast.
“We’re going to do some launches further down the coast, but we haven’t worked out our spots yet,” he said. “We need somewhere high and a good view of the coastline to keep the antenna somewhat in line with the drone.
“They will be looking for Māui dolphins off the Kāwhia and Aotea harbours using the drone. We haven’t got down that far yet, but it is definitely part of the plan for this year, and part of the new permission that’s been granted as well.
“It’s going to be amazing. It means we can make a difference this year. We have been working hard towards it and it is a real game changer for us,” Tane said. Beyond-visual-line-of-sight approval has taken MAUI63 two-and-a-half years and 160 pages of documentation.
“But it makes sense, we are flying around with helicopters and other users, so we need to make sure that we are safe and that we are not going to hurt anyone,” he said.
“And it’s very new. The airspace has always been controlled, having an unmanned aircraft up there and integrating with it was a big journey but they were pretty good with us working through it. Can’t complain.”
CAA approval for BVLOS came at the conclusion of the Māui drone project, which was a collaboration between the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) through the Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund, MAUI63, WWF-New Zealand, and fishing companies Moana New Zealand and Sanford Limited.
The project enabled the development of a model and methodology for non-intrusive drone-based aerial surveys of the Māui dolphins. The AI technology can distinguish Māui and Hector’s dolphins from other species with more than 90 percent accuracy.
Flying high overhead at an altitude of about 120 metres with a 50x optical zoom camera, the drone can find, follow, and film for up to six hours.
Steve Penno, MPI Director of Investment Programmes, said gaining BVLOS approval meant MAUI63 would be able to start collecting more meaningful data, translating years of research and development into practice.
“The latest estimates are that there are just 54 Māui dolphins left. With this technology we aim to help bring these precious taonga back from the brink of extinction.”
