Drones for Maritime Activism
The Blackfish has integrated the use of unmanned air vehicles in support of their marine wildlife protection operations. Blackfish's UAS were provided by Laurens De Groot 's organization ShadowView, who supplies UAVs to non-profits for conservation projects. The group flew initial demonstration sorties with a quad-rotor over a harbor and is looking to improve their UAS capabilities to fly longer range missions over the open water in an effort to expose illegal driftnet fishing in the Mediterranean. The Blackfish joins the ranks of a growing number of non-governmental organizations using UAVs for maritime surveillance operations including Sea Shepherd Conservation Society , Earthrace Conservation , and Greenpeace .