Beware of whales

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Beware of whales







                

                                                            


    


        

    

            

    
                                                        

                
The blue whale, the largest animal on Earth, measures on average 27 meters (89 feet) long. But its impressive size does not mean that the species is safe in the sea. A national database for marine mammal health reported that collisions with boats killed 10 of the 12 blue whales found dead on the California coast between 2007-2017. Whales that were hit and sunk, injured in a collision or tangled in fishing gear were not included in that count.



In 2015, scientists. introduced a new online tool WhaleWatch called was meant to prevent potentially deadly encounters between whales and boats. Partly funded by the NASA Applied Sciences Program and produced by a team of scientists from the University of Maryland, Oregon State University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the program uses satellite data on environmental conditions to make monthly estimates of where whales are most likely to be located along the Pacific coast of the United States and Canada. The WhaleWatch data is updated regularly and available from NOAA.



Elliott Hazen, a researcher at NOAA who led the development of the model, compares the tool with applications that help car drivers avoid traffic during their trip. "If a certain road has a lot of traffic, you probably have to slow down and want to explore another route," said Hazen. "We hope the WhaleWatch product can work in exactly the same way."



The map above shows a whale probability estimate for September 2018. Light colored areas had a higher chance of a match. The map is derived from a wide range of environmental variables detected by NASA satellites and other agencies. Two of these variables, the colder waters and an intermediate amount of the pigment known as chlorophyll-a, are the main factors that bring more whales.



"This is probably due to an ecological delay where high chlorophyll produces larger amounts of krill, which then attract whales that feed," said Hazen.





    


        

    

            

    



The factors that attract the location of whales vary over time, and WhaleWatch can tell you how to do it. The previous maps show the extremes of the spectrum, when the probable presence of whales in 2018 was comparatively low (February) and high (July).



WhaleWatch data like these are sent directly to NOAA's West Coast Region office, which manages the whale population in the California Current. Ship attack risk management in California is currently voluntary, but according to Hazen: "The National Marine Sanctuary of the Channel Islands and organizations like Benioff Ocean Initiative are working hard to explore ways in which tools like this can be useful for reduce attacks with ships.







                
Maps of the Earth Observatory of NASA by Lauren Dauphin using probability data of whales of WhaleWatch. Story of Kathryn Hansen.



                

            

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