A group of U.S. marine biologists were able to study and observe families of orca whales, better known as killer whales, as the marine mammals swam and played with each other while two others unfortunately died in the Pacific ocean.

The incredible orca journey was captured in the Johnstone Strait just off from British Columbia in Canada where scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Vancouver Aquarium studied and observed them at close range.

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This killer whale mission lasted 13 days in August as an aerial drone called an hexacopter specifically built for this mission hovered over 82 different whales from a height of 100 feet.

The goal of this scientific mission was to observe how whales get enough nutrition by following closely their eating habits and diet by noting how fat or skinny they get. This mission also aims to pinpoint why British Columbia's home killer whales has been classified under the Species at Risk Act by the Canadian government.

Among the whales captured and photographed by the drone was a whale that was so terribly skinny that researchers were critical about its survival among the group. According to John Durban, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, they noted that this whale did not have any fat surrounding its skull and looked like a skeleton with just skin covering bones.

Durban in a sad note explained the inevitable where the drone was able to follow this whale for a couple instances until it disappeared and stopped swimming along with its brother. Scientists were certain that the skinny whale had passed away.

Another whale met the same fate as a female orca lost its baby calf earlier this year. According to Lance Barrett-Lennard from the Vancouver Aquarium's Marine Mammal Research Program, her death was probably caused by some sickness or injury. 

Orcas survive on a steady diet of salmon, but as of late, the salmon runs had become smaller than the normal rate and caused the whales to become underfed, decreasing whale populations. 

Durban says that the hexacopter that surveyed the orca whale population can provide more information about this phenomenon so that scientists can take the necessary measures to preserve the orcas.

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