Migratory pathways of whales

 To help prevent ‘whale strikes’ – accidental impacts by shipping that are the greatest short-term threat to the recovery of species such as blue whales, right whales, sei whales and fin whales.

Blue Marine has partnered with Whale Guardians™, a league of ports, industry, and conservation groups dedicated to rerouting ships around seasonal aggregation and migration areas.    

There has so far been high compliance with the initiative, and ports in Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and Chile have begun to alter routes. In September, Anglo Eastern – the largest ship-management company in the world – officially became a member and partner of Whale Guardians™.

To further support the project, we are using the Axiom app to obtain whale data images from fishermen, creating a wallet to pay them for each approved image. Whale Guardians* has also acquired access to historical data through a partnership with LuxSpace, using the global ship tracker known as the Automatic Identification System (AIS), which can assist in the creation of safer routes.  

Blue Marine’s partners, the Great Whale Conservancy continues to survey blue whales off Ensenada, Mexico’s second-busiest port, and is producing a routing document in to protect them. Meanwhile we plan to develop software with Belgian logistics company Bogerd Martin, which is creating a mapping layer allowing global shipping to avoid critical whale habitats.

Blue Marine is supporting partners Whale Guardians™ and the Great Whale Conservancy in their work to persuade the shipping industry to alter routes that may have a high risk of whale strikes, especially around major ports.