the calf began to propel the fluke of his tail and glided upward towards the surface. and all of a sudden, i found myself peering into the eye of a baby whale. it felt like stepping into another world — a moment of profound interconnectedness that brought tears to my eyes beneath my mask. to my surprise, the baby began to pursue me, while rolling, frolicking, and splashing. it felt as if he was smiling at me, and i could sense his curiosity and joy while we played. 

after what felt like 10 minutes but was really around an hour, we hopped back onto the boat. the captain guffawed in vicarious joy, as we rejoiced in awe about what we had just experienced. we called him ‘crazy baby,’ a name the captain said was fitting for a calf so spirited she’d only seen its equal once in 14 years. i couldn’t believe my luck: to connect with such a magnificent creature so intimately, to share a fleeting but unforgettable moment.

video by chloe malouf.

around two weeks later, in moorea, french polynesia, rachel moore, a conservation photographer and social media influencer, experienced a similarly incredible encounter with a 3-4 year old juvenile humpback whale, who she nicknamed ‘sweet girl.’

“in the six seasons that i’ve swam with humpback whales, i’ve had numerous encounters with curious whales, especially calves. however, none were quite like sweet girl,” moore said. “unlike many young whales, she approached humans with a calm, almost playful demeanor, allowing us to interact with her in ways that were both rare and awe-inspiring.”

however, on october 8th 2024, a boat presumed to be going six times the legal speed limit rammed into sweet girl off the main island of tahiti, severing her upper jaw off and inflicting hours of suffering upon her before she was euthanized. “at first, i didn’t want to believe it was her. it wasn’t until i saw the distinctive markings on her body that i was certain,” moore said. “when i realized it was her, i was utterly heartbroken. it was difficult to process the fact that this incredibly gentle, curious whale had suffered such a tragic end.”

sweet girl’s death sparked a newfound sense of urgency to reduce vessel speed limits in french polynesia during whale season, and moore spearheaded a petition calling for this measure. unfortunately, this tragedy is not an isolated incident. all over the world, whales are threatened by ship strikes, especially great whales (baleen and sperm whales).

whales face growing problems

experts estimate that around 20,000 whales are struck and killed by cargo, cruise, and shipping vessels each year. ship strikes are emerging as one of the primary threats to whale populations around the globe, despite being largely undiscussed. 

the reason for vessel strikes is simple: whales don’t see boats and boats don’t see whales until it’s too late to safely maneuver around them (or they just don’t see them at all). ship strikes occur most frequently in areas where human and whale activity overlap. increasing maritime traffic, vessel sizes, and ship speeds are among the leading contributors to whale mortalities resulting from ship strikes. by 2050, maritime traffic is expected to increase by up to 1200%, indicating this issue will only continue to worsen unless widespread mitigation measures are implemented.

see the map below to visualize the extensive overlap between global shipping routes and whale superhighways. 

the international whaling commission (iwc) has identified whale populations that are most vulnerable to/threatened by ship strikes, as seen below.

according to the iwc’s strategic plan to mitigate ship strikes, “human-induced mortality caused by ship strikes can be an impediment to cetacean population growth. populations of whales in the low hundreds of individuals are at risk of continuing declines even if only a small number of ship strikes occur per year.”

of particular concern is the status of north atlantic right whales, whose main threats are entanglement in fishing gear and ship strikes. “unless we get successful management measures, right whales will probably be extinct with your lifetime,” said david wiley, ph.d., the research coordinator for noaa’s stellwagen bank national marine sanctuary.

what’s more, as the climate is changing, whales are adapting, feeding in areas closer to coasts with more human activity, staying in areas longer than expected, and altering migration routes. kathi george, the director of cetacean conservation biology at the marine mammal center and an advisory council member for the greater farallones national marine sanctuary in california, speaks on this phenomenon below.

i spoke to george about public awareness of shipping collisions with whales. listen below:

“(the whales) didn’t evolve with industry. they don’t know to necessarily get out of the way of a ship when it is nearby. but they’re here to eat, and they’re going to go where the food is. and unfortunately, the food is in areas where there are high human activity,” george said.

current mitigation measures

research and monitoring is key to separating whales from vessels across time and space. we have to first understand where the whales’ critical habitats are located, how long they are staying there, and what migratory routes they are taking to get between them. this requires extensive research, international collaboration, and consistent funding.

in collaboration with dan zitterbart, ph. d., from the woods hole oceanographic institute, wiley’s lab is quantifying dimethyl sulfide (dms) abundance in seawater and using it as a predictor for right whale presence. dms is a sulphur compound produced by zooplankton called copepods, a key food source for several types of whales. dms acts as a sort of invisible breadcrumb trail that whales can follow, leading them to areas where food is plentiful. see how this works in more detail below.

surveying the prevalence of dms can also be used to predict the distribution and abundance of sei whales, which feed on copepods and are endangered.

higher efficiency in tracking whale movements paired with streamlined communication is especially crucial considering whales’ increasingly dynamic foraging behaviors. wiley provided an example of right whales suddenly switching habitats due to changes in copepod abundance.

during our interview, wiley expanded on the research around dms:

there are also monitoring efforts to map whale occurrence and identify hotspots where whales aggregate. developed by university of santa barbara’s (ucsb’s) benioff ocean science laboratory, whale safe combines marine science with technology to monitor whale occurrence off the san francisco coast and in the santa barbara channel. the program integrates whale sightings, acoustic buoys detecting whale calls, and a predictive model of blue whale occurrence. daily updates about whale activity in these areas are vital given the rapid changes in whale occurrence with the climate.

regulations on ships and moving shipping lanes

the best way to prevent ship collisions with whales is by separating them from ships entirely. the national oceanic and atmospheric administration (noaa) fisheries division implements various regulations to prevent vessel strikes of whales, shown below.

in our interview, wiley discussed re-routing measures on the us east coast. listen below:

mandatory approach regulations require vessel operators to maintain a specific distance, depending on the species, between their boat and any whales in the area. 

“vessel speed reduction is the most effective tool currently available to reduce lethal collision events,” a noaa fisheries spokesperson said. research shows that the probability of large whale mortality due to ship strikes jumps from 21% at 8.6 knots to 79% at 15 knots (vanderlaan & taggart, 2007). thus, noaa implements both voluntary and mandatory 10-knot vessel speed restrictions in areas designated as slow speed zones along the u.s. east and west coasts. 

aside from the united states, many other countries have similar mitigation measures. the world shipping council (wsc) created the wsc whale chart in november 2023, which “offers mariners, managers, and policymakers a survey of all (governmental ship strike reduction) measures, across the globe, ranging from speed restrictions, routing measures, and areas to be avoided.” 

outreach and collaboration with the fishing industry

most ongoing mitigation measures are voluntary, leaving it up to mariners and the shipping industry to comply, which poses some significant problems. to address this, noaa fisheries and other organizations grade shipping companies based on their compliance with voluntary measures. 

wiley discussed how noaa does this on the east coast and how effective it has been below.

the stellwagen bank national marine sanctuary has also piloted a new technology, using an antenna to send notifications directly to the ship’s ais receiver screen, informing vessel operators if they are non-compliant with noaa’s speed restrictions when inside seasonal management areas (smas).

“we’ve developed a method that we can send a message to a ship in an sma that’s going too fast. and, so it appears on their navigation screen that says, you know, you’re in an area that’s (about to be a) seasonal management area for right whales,” wiley said.

the system is designed to alert vessel operators, but it also allows wiley’s team to track compliance. “so if you send it out once and they don’t get another message, they’ve complied. if you send it 10 times, then they haven’t complied at all,” he said.

funding the notification system is costly, however, and wiley notes that despite the project’s success rate, widespread coverage across the east coast is not yet feasible.

“right now, we’ve got some money that noaa has provided, and we’re targeting particular locations. we’ve got a location in provincetown. we’ve got some along the mid-atlantic, new york, and new jersey. there’s a couple now in tybee island, georgia. again, we’re putting a few of these up, but the more the better.” – dave wiley, ph.d.

off the california coast, whale safe uses its vessel analytics platform, which is an automated system allowing near real-time tracking of vessel activity and was recently scaled all over north america, to grade shipping companies based on their compliance. since its launch in 2020, there has been a gradual increase in compliance in both santa barbara and san francisco. 

rachel rhodes is a project scientist at the benioff ocean science laboratory and leads the whale safe project. rhodes spoke on how outreach with shipping companies has contributed to increased compliance. 

using the vessel analytics platform, rhodes’ team works with the shipping companies to create plans to deliver weekly reports on their compliance. “our hope is kind of this exact example of our data could help companies make those changes if they want to,” she said.

the tool is free and accessible for vessel operators to see whale occurrence on any given day. the platform integrates three complex data sources into a whale presence rating, categorized as low, medium, high, or very high. 

meanwhile, kathi george chairs a work group for the san francisco harbor safety committee, adding guidelines for safely navigating around whales to the san francisco harbor safety plan. george works closely with the shipping industry to spread awareness, share mutual perspectives, and develop mitigation strategies collectively.

next steps

a recent study generated global whale distribution models and compared them with shipping activity to create a global estimate of whale-ship collision risk.

these alarming findings highlight that current management areas are dramatically insufficient to mitigate ship strikes on a global scale. barriers include a lack of coordinated multinational collaboration, insufficient funding, and low public awareness.

looking ahead, scientists like george are encouraging multinational collaboration to work towards expanded management areas for full coverage of risk hotspots. one recent example is the whales in a changing climate workshop hosted in january, 2024 by the greater farallones and cordell bank national marine sanctuaries.

the workshop brought together government representatives from across the eastern pacific basin, ranging from canada to columbia. the resulting plan emphasizes the importance of collaborative management of marine protected areas, harmonized data sharing, and increased investment in research and mitigation measures.

technology too, will continue to adapt. satellite detection of whales offers a new way to track movements efficiently, even in remote areas, and infrared cameras on ship bridges can detect whales earlier. 

another important step forward is scaling whale safe’s vessel analytics platform globally, especially to current management areas and high-risk ship strike zones. in doing so, researchers like wiley can better monitor compliance with speed restrictions and target conservation efforts.

while there’s still hope for reducing ship strikes, the stakes remain deeply personal. as i reflect on the urgent need for global action, i can’t help but recall crazy baby and his mom. revisiting the magical memories of our encounters, i find myself conflicted, torn between awe and trepidation. i lay restless at night pondering the haunting question: where are they now? did they manage to pass through the busy shipping lanes along their journey, like a thread through a needle? it’s unsettling knowing that i will never know their fate, but i will always maintain hope they both mother and son made it to their destination safe and unharmed.