Marine biologist Alicia Amerson is trying to bring all drone users (aka 'pilots') up to speed about how to avoid harassing wildlife, check out her interview on the current episode of Mongabay's podcast:
https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/audio-how-to-use-drones-without-stressing-wildlife/ Most researchers know about these issues but as she states, *hobbyists are using drones too aggressively to get exciting shots of birds and whales* etc, but says that *hobbyists can legitimately aid good science and research* and just need training and orientation. She's got a book and online course all about it, and is a good interviewee that we enjoyed having on the show, just click the play at the link above or subscribe for free on Android <https://subscribeonandroid.com/mongabay.libsyn.com/rss%E2%80%9D>, Google Play <https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ii23ecdja5vf2we3ahata3x7ui>, iTunes <https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mongabay-newscast-1-panamas/id1155856616?i=1000375414517&mt=2> , Stitcher <https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/mongabay-newscast>, TuneIn <http://tunein.com/radio/Mongabay-Newscast-p914475/>, RSS <http://mongabay.libsyn.com/rss>, and via Spotify. Or listen to all our episodes via the Mongabay website here <https://www.mongabay.com/podcast/%E2%80%9D> on the podcast homepage. *It's a huge issue!* As she says, it's a big lift right now to educate the public and researchers alike about their use vs wildlife before Amazon.com etc fill our skies with pizza toting copters: *“I want to hit the panic button and create policy” before we have drone-based delivery services by companies like Amazon and Uber “and look and collect data to make sure that we understand what populations are using the skies before we release all of these drones into our world. And so you have to create best practices and policies before all this really gets out of control.”* Erik -- www.erikhoffner.com
