Using technology to reduce collisions between vessels and large whales

Large whales are vulnerable to collisions with all vessel types throughout the ocean. Whales are particularly at risk where busy shipping lanes coincide with important whale habitat, such as feeding and breeding areas and migratory routes. For some species and populations, collisions with vessels, or ship strikes as these are known, are a leading cause of death and a threat to the recovery of whale populations. Strikes can often go unnoticed or unreported, thus under-representing the threat posed by ship strikes on a global scale.

Whale Alert is an app designed for smart phones and tablets, which provides information to mariners about measures to reduce collision risk, by alerting mariners to the presence of whales and management measures in place in ship strike hot spots, and prompting them to slow down or adjust course, as appropriate, and report whale sightings and strikes should these occur.

Whale Alert is currently in use on the east and west coasts of North America, with nearly 30,000 downloads to date, and more than 4,000 whale sightings reported in the last two years. The objective of this commitment by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and partners is to roll-out the Whale Alert app over the next five years to other regions where ship strikes threaten vulnerable whale populations, including: the Bering Strait (bowhead whales); Hauraki Gulf (Brydes whales); waters off Oman (humpback whales); and Straits of Gibraltar and western Mediterranean (sperm and fin whales).

The International Maritime Organization (IMO), supported by the International Whaling Commission (IWC), has developed recommendations for minimising the risks to whales from ship strikes, stating that the best measure to reduce strikes is for minor routing changes to take ships away from high risk areas. However, sometimes clear routing options are not available, making risk reduction more challenging. In these situations reducing ship speed is an alternative option to reduce risk.

A number of IMO endorsed and national measures have been adopted around the world to protect whales from ship strikes, including vessel routing changes, establishing Areas To Be Avoided, and mandatory and voluntary speed restrictions. Whale Alert is a tool that can support mariners by making them aware of where these measures exist, where high concentrations of whales can be encountered and alerting them to practical measures they can take to reduce risk to whales.

Expanding Whale Alert to new regions involves creating new data flows; establishing national expert validators to review data flowing into the app; and working with the shipping industry to maximize usage of the app.

IFAW and its partners are committed to maintaining existing partnerships and forging new partnerships with academic institutions, government agencies, industry bodies and philanthropic foundations and funders to ensure Whale Alert can be made as widely available as possible to help protect at-risk whale populations.