After the near-complete cessation of commercial whaling, ship collisions have emerged as a primary threat to large whales, but knowledge of collision risk is lacking across most of the world’s oceans. We compiled a dataset of 435,000 whale locations to generate global distribution models for four globally ranging species. We then combined >35 billion positions from 176,000 ships to produce a global estimate of whale-ship collision risk. Shipping occurs across 92% of whale ranges, and <7% of risk hotspots contain management strategies to reduce collisions. Full coverage of hotspots could be achieved by expanding management over only 2.6% of the ocean’s surface. These inferences support the continued recovery of large whales against the backdrop of a rapidly growing shipping industry.
Citation:
Nisi, A.C., H. Welch, S. Brodie, C. Leiphardt, R. Rhodes, E.L. Hazen, J.V. Redfern, T.A. Branch, A.S. Barreto, J. Calambokidis, T. Clavelle, L. Dares, A. De Vos, S. Gero, J.A. Jackson, R.D. Kenney, D. Kroodsma, R. Leaper, D.J. McCauley, S.E. Moore, E. Ovsyanikova, S. Panigada, C.V. Robinson, T. White, J. Wilson, and B. Abrahms. 2024. Ship Collision Risk Threatens Whales Across the World’s Oceans. Science 386(6724):870-875. doi: 10.1126/science.adp1950
Link:
https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.adp1950