Kingfisher: UAS for Tag Deployment in Marine Mammal Monitoring

Biologging tags are a critical tool for collecting robust data with minimal disturbance to marine mammal species. Compared to less invasive methods, percutaneous tags can collect data for months, providing critical data to the Navy on how sound and human actions affect marine mammals. However, these tags require significant force and accurate placement to attach. Current methods use a long pole from a small boat, increasing risks to both the cetacean and tagging personnel. The use of uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) in tag deployment can reduce these risks by enabling remote tagging. However, UAS tagging has only been successfully completed using suction-cup attachments which are not sufficient for extended monitoring. Therefore, there is a need to adapt a compact, NDAA-compliant, COTS UAS and develop payloads capable of carrying both the biologging tag and propulsive force to facilitate accurate deployment of Type A and C anchored tags. To address this critical need, Luna Labs USA, LLC, with expertise in marine mammal interfacing, ballistics targeting, and computer vision, is teaming with Cascadia Research for Type A tag expertise and Ocean Alliance for expertise in UAS deployed tagging to develop Kingfisher, a UAS-deployed tagging system for marine mammals.