Five Promising Initiatives to Prevent Collisions with Whales

In the Santa Barbara Channel, blue whales and cargo ships are a bad combination. This narrow, 112 km long maritime corridor separating the Californian coast and the North Channel Islands is the main passage route for thousands of cargo ships that frequent the port of Los Angeles. A real maritime highway.

What makes this device unique is that it compiles data from three different sources. First, there is an acoustic buoy capable of detecting the sounds emitted by blue, humpback and fin whales. Then, there is a software program that can determine the probability of whale presence based on data such as the time of year, water surface temperature or ocean current strength (this part has been refined by the University of Santa Cruz, the University of Washington and the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center). Lastly, whale sightings collected by seasoned observers on mobile apps like Whale Alert and Spotter Pro provide additional layers of data.

The advantage of this software is that it notes each cargo ship present in the Channel according to its compliance with the voluntary speed limit, making it a tool that offers the general public a means of comparison and leverage.

The WWF therefore joined forces with the company Quiet Oceans to develop a network of hydrophone-equipped smart buoys designed to communicate in real time the positions of cetaceans to ships in the area. The greatest difficulty of the project is not technical, but human: operators of ships plying the Mediterranean will have to be convinced to install this system.

What if we programmed computers to recognize the sounds emitted by whales in order to warn proximate ships as quickly as possible? Currently, crews rely on the human ear of an experienced researcher to pick out cetacean songs and calls in the midst of the hubbub of the oceans, but this step hampers the detection and warning process. It is with this in mind that Fisheries and Oceans Canada has partnered with Google Alphabet Inc., the branch of the US company dedicated to artificial intelligence. The first test project is being carried out of the coast of Vancouver in the Salish Sea.

In this maritime zone encompassing the Seattle and Vancouver metropolitan areas and comprising island chains and straits, southern resident killer whales share the waters with large numbers of ships (cargo ships, pleasure craft, ferries). With just 74 individuals remaining, this endangered orca ecotype is highly vulnerable to passing boats. Researchers therefore deployed around twenty stationary hydrophones at strategic locations. The recorded sounds were analyzed by artificial intelligence software equipped with a learning system: after examining 1,800 hours of recordings, the system begins to detect on its own the calls and clicks emitted by killer whales. At the present time, identifications are still verified manually by human operators, but the system could eventually become sufficiently reliable to allow for automatic alerts.

Researchers at Simon Fraser University are also using collected data to better understand and predict killer whale movements. The objective this time is to anticipate the presence of the animals a few hours in advance in order to give ships time to change their course and avoid critical sectors.

To protect North Atlantic right whales, which are venturing into the Gulf of St. Lawrence in ever greater numbers, Transport Canada has worked hard to limit boat speeds.

Large areas are subject to so-called “static” measures, where the speed limit is 10 knots throughout the summer months. The Cabot Strait is subject to a voluntary speed restriction, meaning that ships are requested, but not required, to slow down to a speed of 10 knots. Lastly, five zones located in the middle of the shipping lane and north of Anticosti Island are subject to “dynamic” measures. In short: if right whales are detected, speed limits are temporarily lowered for vessels in the area.

During yacht races, we sometimes hear about collisions with a UFO – an unidentified floating object. However, although these objects are sometimes wood or metal debris, oftentimes the encounter is with a cetacean. Ever faster and more efficient, racing yachts glide silently across the water at very high speeds. Their large aluminum hull is a genuine and potentially lethal threat for any whales that cross paths with them on the high seas.

In an effort to avoid this type of encounter, 18 of the 33 yachts participating in the Vendée Globe 2020 were equipped with a detection system that is currently being fine-tuned. Named “Oscar”, this system scans the horizon from the top of the mast; using a series of sensors, it can detect a cetacean present at the surface from up to 600 m away. Its designers hope to gradually boost its performance by acquiring more data.