Whale watching with drones takes off

What are personal drones good for? Like the iPad before it, this technology is of the "if you build it they will come" variety. Put it out on the marketplace and customers will come up with all kinds of good uses that the technology's inventers never imagined. This is the situation with unmanned aerial vehicles as we enter the Drone Decade. Delivering cases of beer to ice fishermen far out in the middle of a lake? Check! Real estate agents showing prospective buyers what properties look like from overhead? Check! Now, off the coast of Southern California, whale watching tours are adding drone-captured video to their arsenal, giving tourists views of whales that they could never before have. The practice is somewhat controversial because it isn't known whether whales are concerned about little flying machines buzzing above them. Are drones affecting the sea mammals' behavior? What is sure is that the footage the drones capture is amazing and that customers will be clambering to see more. Unless this trend is stopped by political or social will, expect to see it grow in the year to come. Click below for the video.