Oregon Public Broadcasting

Boaters and beach walkers in north Puget Sound may be startled Tuesday and Wednesday by a low-flying Zeppelin over the water. 

The giant airship is carrying whale researchers to film orcas before returning to its home base in California.

Marine biologists are hitching a ride on the Zeppelin to take hi-def video and photos  of endangered orca whale pods foraging or interacting with flotillas of whale watchers.

Airship Ventures company founder Brian Hall says his Zeppelin can gather higher quality data than other craft.

Brian Hall: "For one thing, we can be low and above the marine mammals.  So we can see them very clearly and in a way that is not disturbing to them because we are very quiet and above them as opposed to next to them."

Researchers from the federal science agency NOAA and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute are riding along. 

Farmers Insurance, the sponsor of the flying billboard, is donating two days of flight time to the research project. 

Among other things, the scientists hope to get updated measurements of the length and girth of individual orca whales.  They can do that from the air with a camera and a laser range finder.