Researchers use Drones to fly through Whale spouts to study the breath of Whales.

Though a whale’s spout looks like a stream of water, that’s actually water vapor from the warm breath being expelled from the whale’s lungs.

When a whale comes to the surface after a dive, it breathes out the air in it’s lungs. So the “spout” you see is not a fountain of water; rather, it’s a stream of warm air being forced out of the whales lungs, aka the whale’s breath. This condensed water vapor looks like steam – the same thing happens when you “see your breath” on a cold winter day. Whales are regularly exhaling a lot of valuable data.

IMAGE CREDIT: PHOTO BY MICHAEL MOORE, WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION; ACQUIRED UNDER NATIONAL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE PERMIT 17355-01 AND NOAA CLASS G FLIGHT AUTHORIZATION 2015-ESA-4-NOAA -

Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are capturing samples of whales’ breath, using a drone to collect data on the health of endangered whales.

Though a whale’s spout looks like a stream of water, that’s actually water vapor from the warm breath being expelled from the whale’s lungs. The drone flies through this stream of breath (vapor) and collects oily droplets that accumulate on the surface of the drone. Forced down by the downdraft of the UAV, the whale’s snotty breath liquid lands on the whalecopter’s plexiglass dome (seen below).