Baleen whales are important consumers in coastal marine ecosystems that can serve as effective sentinel species due to their large body size and high energetic requirements. As capital breeders, baleen whales undergo large changes in body condition seasonally, accumulating energy reserves during the summer foraging months and relying on these energy stores during the winter. Studying body condition can provide information on population health and resource availability, particularly when paired with research on prey abundance, distribution and/ or species composition.

We use Unoccupied Aerial Systems (UAS) or drones to obtain morphometric measurements of individual humpback whales and aerial imagery of predator-prey interactions. We integrate morphometric measurements with a 3D model to estimate total body volume of individual whales and generate a metric of body condition, Field work for this research in the New York Bight is part of a long-term monitoring project in which we use humpback whale body condition as a metric of ecosystem health. We assess how annual variability in humpback whale body condition relates to broader ecosystem change in the Northeast US. We also collaborate with other research teams to examine how the body condition of humpback whales in the New York Bight compares with that of whales at different foraging areas around the globe. Initial collaborative research on humpback whale body condition demonstrated that humpbacks foraging in the New York Bight have lower body condition than those foraging further north in the Northeast US.