Technology Aims To Reduce Whale Fatalities: New App Steers Ships From Whales

WhaleAlert 2.0 is a free download for iPhone/iPad. An Android
version is currently in the works.

By Ted Andersen

          The blue whale may be the king of the ocean, but in California coastal waters the endangered mammal has all too often fallen to the less regal position of traffic victim.

Every year, commercial and private vessels accidently strike whales, at times killing them. In 2010, ships struck and killed five whales (two blue, one humpback and two fin whales) along Northern California’s coastline, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Data suggest many other collisions go unrecognized.  

But a public-private collaboration has recently developed a method to allow the public to contribute to whale preservation. In early September, an app called Whale Alert 2.0 was launched on the West Coast to help mariners steer clear of large marine mammals. Originally developed in 2012 to help protect critically endangered right whales on the East Coast, the iPhone/iPad application has been updated with new features to provide ship captains in the Pacific with information regarding real-time whale movements and locations.

“Any whale strike is a problem as far as we are concerned,” said John Berge, vice president of Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, a non-profit group that focuses on issues affecting international trade, primarily with container ships.

The free app uses GPS, Automatic Identification System (a tracking system used on ships), the Internet and NOAA nautical charts. New features include maps of California Marine Protected Areas and information about tides and weather. In addition, the public can report whale sightings to databases that track migration patterns. With the data, NOAA can help the U.S. Coast Guard advise ship operators to slow down or change course as they approach areas where whales have been sighted.

The new technology is the result of a joint effort between government agencies, academic institutions, non-profit conservation groups and private sector industries led by NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. The ultimate goal is to slow ships before they pass through a sensitive habitat at full speed.

“We know in the case of these large ships, speed literally kills whales,” said Patrick Ramage, whale program director at the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

The series of connected projects was paid for by a $20-million amount set aside for conservation efforts from the company Excelerate Energy when it sought to build a deep-water port about 16 miles from Boston to import natural gas. Originally, the project included high-tech buoys developed at Cornell University anchored off the coast of Massachusetts to detect the calls of the right whales. No detection buoys have been anchored in the Pacific.

North Atlantic right whales, which live along the East Coast from Nova Scotia to Florida and number only about 400, are currently facing extinction. Collision with ships is a leading cause of right whale death. Since the 2012 launch of the first version of the app, Ramage said, progress has been made.

“There has not been in the designated areas a ship striking a whale,” he said. “And that’s not because of the absence of whales.”

Whale Alert 2.0 works together with westcoast.whalealert.org, which features the downloadable app Spotter Pro, designed more for professional data gathering. The software company Conserve.IO originally developed Whale Alert 1.0 for the East Coast and Spotter for the West Coast.

“We decided to fuse those efforts into one program,” said Conserve.IO founder and CEO Brad Winney. “So now for the first time we have a singular app that is able to alert mariners as to the presence of critical areas and habitats, but at the same time that app can collect data that is used to help understand where those areas should be in the first place.”

Some bugs are still being worked out such as limitations in cellular networks for real-time data, something that could be solved using satellite technology. Another obstacle NOAA is attempting to overcome is the education of captains and crews on how to use the app.

And the project is still growing. Whale Alert 3.0 is currently in the works internationally, said IFAW’s Ramage. Countries ranging from Spain and New Zealand to Sri Lanka and Uruguay have approached IFAW about collecting data to populate an app, he said, but a lot of work still needs to be done.

“We are excited because we are an international organization and this is what we envisioned from the beginning of the project,” he said.