B.C. film company fined $30K for flying drone too close to killer whales

Members of the A5 pod of northern resident killer whales are shown in this handout image provided by Jared Towers, a scientist with the fisheries department. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Department of Fisheries and Oceans-Jared Towers

The federal government has fined a Vancouver film company and its drone operator $30,000 for unlawful use of a drone to capture video of endangered killer whales off the British Columbia coast.

The fines – $25,000 for the company and $5,000 for the drone operator – mark the first time that monetary penalties have been issued for using a drone to film orcas, according to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

River Road Films Ltd. pleaded guilty in July to unlawfully capturing drone video of northern resident killer whales in August 2021 following an investigation by the DFO's whale protection unit, the department said.

The DFO says the film company and its sister company in the United Kingdom had applied for a permit to film the at-risk species in 2020 but the application was not approved.

Despite the lack of a permit, the company's film crew was found using drones and underwater cameras to capture the endangered orcas at a rubbing beach on Vancouver Island.

Beach rubbing is a unique behaviour of the northern resident orcas in which the mammals brush up against the smooth pebbled bottoms of shallow waters to scrape off dead skin and strengthen family bonds, the department says.

In addition to the fines, the film company is prohibited from using or distributing the drone footage, according to the fisheries department.

"Both the film company and the drone operator are first-time offenders," the DFO said in a news release Monday.

The federal agency is warning drone operators that it is illegal to fly a drone within 304 metres of marine mammals under Canada's Marine Mammal Regulations.

River Road Films worked with U.K.-based Wild Space Productions on the Emmy-winning "Island of the Sea Wolves," a 2022 Netflix series documenting wildlife on Vancouver Island.