COLLISIONSWhen ships collide with whales,
the animals rarely survive

In many marine regions, ships collide with marine life such as whales, dolphins, sea turtles, sea lions or sharks.  The size and speed of ships increases the risk of a collision. Animals are struck or injured by the ship’s propeller. In most cases, the strikes prove to be fatal.

Ocean Custody is making great efforts to minimize the risk of ship collisions with marine animals. Together with scientists and partner organizations, we are developing solutions that we communicate directly to the shipping sector and to governments. In this way, we effectively save lives and do everything in our power to prevent endangered whale populations from extinction.

The whales need us!

The most important measures
to prevent ship collisions with whales

Risk hotspots: Re-route shipping traffic

In some marine regions, shipping routes pass directly through breeding or feeding grounds of large whale and dolphin species: for example, south of Sri Lanka, where blue whales live, or in the Hellenic Trench off Greece, the home of sperm whales. Re-routing shipping lanes to avoid navigating through these areas significantly reduces the risk of collisions between ships and whales. Together with its partners, Ocean Custody has already been able to convince major shipping companies and shipping associations to reroute in certain areas.

Speed reduction: Benefit for whales and the climate

In cases where re-routing is not possible, shipping speed must be reduced. Reducing the speed of ships has been shown to reduce not only the risk of collisions with whales, but also CO2 emissions, other air pollutants and ocean noise.

SAvE Whales: High Tech as a complementary measure

In order to protect endangered sperm whales in the Eastern Mediterranean, Ocean Custody has funded the development of the world’s first integrated sperm whale localisation system. The SAvE Whales system can inform captains in real time about the presence of sperm whales. It is intended to become employed in those key zones where bypassing is not possible. The decision to use the SAvE Whales system lies with the Greek government.

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news ABOUT collisions

6 Facts about collisions

Ship strikes represent a serious conservation and welfare problem all around the globe.

Collisions with large vessels often go unnoticed and unreported.

Effective solutions: Moving shipping routes out of cetacean habitats and reducing vessel speed.

A 10% reduction in speed across the global fleet would reduce the risk of ship strikes by 50%.

Since 2007, the IWC has been developing a global database of collisions between ships and whales.

SAvE Whales is the first real-time acoustic observatory for sperm whale localization to avoid ship collisions.