This article can be found at http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2010/09/28/scientists_use_hovering_zeppelin_to_film_whales/
One type of aircraft that often goes unmentioned is the zeppelin. Since picking up a bad reputation in 1937 after a German passenger zeppelin burst into flames at an air station in New Jersey and killed 36 people, the zeppelin model has had some key technical adjustments to assure a safe flight. The primary improvement is the use of helium rather than hydrogen (extremely flammable) as the rising gas. Other improvements include a computerized steering system and a frame of carbon fiber.
The story is about one zeppelin called the ‘Eureka’ (the “only operational zeppelin in the United States”), which is used as a fantastic tool for scientific research: it can “examine biota in salt ponds,” detect “harmful algal blooms,” “seek out pipeline gas leak evidence,” and, as focused on in this article, observe gray, blue and killer whale pods off the California coast from a truly special perspective—whale researcher Erin Heydenreich says, “I get to see whales every day from a boat…[b]ut seeing them from the air is just a completely different picture…watching the way they move together under water is just incredible.”
The writing is well done. Nearly every paragraph included a new bit of interesting information that developed the story even further. There could have been some more talk on the actual science being done through the cameras of the Eureka – but the story certainly works in its currently brief form.
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