In a Deadly Year for Whales, CA Considers Statewide Program to Slow Ships

The Santa Barbara Channel is a gateway to many things. Tourists pass through to visit islands surrounded by some of California’s oldest underwater parks. Fishing boats chug past on their way to and from fishing grounds. Large container ships travel by — as many as 10 to 20 per day. And — some of the original school bus-sized inhabitants of the waters — whales also pass through.

On a cold, gloomy day in spring, it was a group of boat passengers navigating the Channel, swaying with the waves as they returned to shore from Anacapa Island. Water dripped from hair and neoprene booties squeaked as some, still wearing wetsuits, walked around the boat after a scuba dive at the marine reserve.

The back of a whale rose out of the water, its fluke rising out of the water before rolling away beneath the waves. Soon, the water around felt alive with whales on all sides. They were lunging, breaching, diving, and feeding on baitfish that made the water ripple and shimmer.

Passengers hooped with joy: “Woooooow!” “Just incredible!” “Whales as far as the eye can see.”

But in the distance — not so far away — a large container ship rolled into port. Douglas McCauley, a researcher aboard the ship, held his shoulders just a bit higher than a moment before.

“You always get a little tense when you see these large ships and whales sharing the same space,” said McCauley, director of the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory and professor at UC Santa Barbara.

Wildlife photographer and part-time whale watching guide Adam Ernster squinted at the horizon.

“There’s a big program in the channel to get the ships to slow down so they don’t hit the whales,” he said, whipping out his phone. “Let’s see if this ship is adhering or not.”

Ernster drew up the “Whale Safe app” on his phone. It’s a project of the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory at UC Santa Barbara. Whale Safe uses several technologies, including underwater microphones and a GPS-like identification system, to track and share information on where whales and ships are. It can also tell users a ship’s current speed.

“This ship is going 10.5 knots,” Ernster said. “The request is 10 knots, so he’s pretty much there, which is a whale-safe speed.”

The grays and humpbacks that migrate along California’s coast are having a tough summer, with more than usual dead whales washing ashore in and around the San Francisco Bay. U.S. government scientists report gray whale numbers are not bouncing back from recent die-offs and fewer calves were born this year than typical. Meanwhile, California lawmakers are considering whether to implement the Blue Whales and Blue Skies program throughout state waters. The program incentivizes ships to cooperate with federal voluntary speed limit requests.

Rachel Rhodes, the lead project scientist for Whale Safe, said, asking ships to slow down for whales to keep them safe is a lot like encouraging cars to slow down near schools to keep kids safe. Whale Safe, a separate but partner project of BWBS, launched its pilot system in the Santa Barbara Channel in 2020.

Many schools have signs serving as reminders that children could be present. “Having more information on whale presence,” Rhodes said, “we see as a similar reminder to mariners who might be traveling through these areas.”

An aligned effort is the Blue Whales and Blue Skies program, a partnership between a host of organizations, including National Marine Sanctuaries, several air quality districts, and Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory.

The program enrolls shipping line participants, requesting they comply with the voluntary slowdowns in certain areas when whales are likely to be around, generally from May 1 to December 15 annually. The program gives awards and sends out positive press releases celebrating companies that are highly compliant. The approach seems to be working. When Blue Whales and Blue Skies started with a pilot trial in 2014, the percentage of ships adhering to whale-safe speeds was 12%. Last year, it was 67% in the region among all ships 300 tons or greater, and 85% among those shipping lines that decided to join the program.

The Port of Oakland announced this summer it was joining the program as an ambassador, meaning they’ll encourage ships that use the port to comply with voluntary speed limits on how fast they can travel and will recognize companies that do, with similar awards or positive press. Austin Vuong, who works on sustainability and climate resilience at the Port of Oakland, said the benefits of the program are multi-faceted.

“Everyone loves whales,” he said. “But also when ships travel slower, they burn less fuel and reduce emissions.”

That will mean cleaner air for bay residents, less greenhouse gas emissions overall and a quieter underwater environment, which is good for animals.

Vuong said the sizable majority — more than 80% — of all voyages from ships using the Port of Oakland already slow to 10 knots, considered a whale-safe speed.

“We wanted to celebrate our shipping partners who already do this voluntarily and to encourage those who are not to join the program,” he said.

In spring, the Port of Los Angeles held an awards ceremony to honor the top-performing shipping lines. Vuong said Oakland is considering doing something like this in the future, but has no firm plans or commitments.

Some of the almost fully compliant companies last year include Cosco Shipping — a Chinese company, not the same as the membership-based box store Costco Wholesale — Maersk, a Danish company and Yang Ming, a Taiwanese company.

“We recognize our responsibility to minimize environmental impact and promote sustainable shipping practices,” James Jeng, chief marine technology officer at Yang Ming, said in a statement. “That’s why we are proud to continue our participation in BWBS, an initiative that delivers both environmental and social benefits while helping to safeguard a stable and biodiverse future.”

When asked, Blue Whales and Blue Skies said they don’t release information on the least compliant companies. But data from the Whale Safe scorecard shows 90 companies currently receiving an F grade.

Rhodes said sometimes the Whale Safe initiative gets pushback from companies who don’t want their speed data to be public. She tries to reach out to companies and talk to them about the program. Sometimes they are receptive, she said, sometimes they do not engage.

The International Chamber of Shipping, a global trade association, said in an email that they are “largely in support of local [and] regional speed reduction schemes, so long as they are generally rational and fit for purpose.”

While shipping lines’ cooperation with the voluntary speeds has been improving, Rhodes is eager to see that continue.

After all, even if just 15% of drivers flouted speed limits near schools, parents would still find that unacceptable. If the non-complying part of the pie doesn’t continue to shrink, Rhodes said, advocates could push for mandatory slowdowns.

At the moment, however, voluntary is what there’s political will for. A bill that passed the state assembly and is currently being amended in the Senate would bring the Blue Whales Blue Skies program to the whole California coast. There is no organized or vocal opposition to it.

Lawmakers are considering it during what has been an especially difficult and deadly season for whales, particularly gray whales in Northern California.

The number of dead whales in the San Francisco Bay Area washing up injured and battered is much higher this year than usual. At least 24 whales have died in the wider region this year, according to a tally from the California Academy of Sciences. Even during other recent bad years, such as 2019, when 14 whales died or 2021, when 15 did, numbers have not been so high.

Moe Flannery, a scientist at the California Academy of Sciences, said she is distressed by the large number of dead gray whales appearing with ship strike injuries. She is one of the people who respond to dead whales and tries to determine why they died.

“These are blunt force trauma injuries, so broken bones with associated hemorrhaging,” Flannery said.

More whales might be getting hurt because more are coming into the San Francisco Bay looking for food. More than 30 individual gray whales have been spotted and confirmed via photos by the Marine Mammal Center’s Cetacean Conservation Biology Team. Just six gray whales were sighted in the bay last year.

“Feeding inside San Francisco Bay, which has lots of vessel traffic, either large shipping container ships, the high-speed ferries, or even just recreational boaters, does put gray whales at more danger,” Flannery said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in June that it believes gray whales are at their lowest numbers since the 1970s and that they may not be getting enough prey to eat in their summer feeding grounds. Past research has linked fluctuations in food availability to the instability caused by climate change.

Marine ecologists assume official numbers of whale strikes are undercounts. A 2017 research paper estimated that off the West Coast, over 80 endangered whales a year are fatally struck by ships, and that many of those corpses sink.

Flannery said coexisting with whales requires a societal effort: “Nobody wants to hit a whale, accidents happen, but the more eyes and ears we have on the water, the more we can hopefully avoid.”