Several close-up drone videos have surfaced on social media in the last week of a southern right whale mother and calf, which have been swimming near the Brighton, Kuri Bush area.
Laws state drones operated without a permit must have a horizontal distance of more than 150m from marine mammals.
Department of Conservation biodiversity manager Jim Fyfe said it wanted to encourage people to abide by these rules.
However, he acknowledged these laws were from the 1970s, and related to aircraft.
"Drones as aircraft is something Doc doesn’t control, so we have to work within that framework. I think there has been some work in reviewing those rules.
"It does seem like a ‘hammer to crack a nut’ system at the moment."
While rules needed to be reviewed, drones still could disturb the animals, he said.
"It’s fantastic that we’ve got these whales coming back and people are enjoying and seeing them, but we don’t want viewing to lead to a disturbance that changes their natural behaviour."
Researchers in the Auckland Islands had permits to use drones to film the creatures much more closely, which helped in the understanding of how drones affected the creatures.
Mr Fyfe’s advice to the public was for them to check the rules if they wanted to film the creatures with drones, and if they were really interested, to apply for a permit.
