Whales can save the planet!

Before I'm going to tell you about my experiences in the ocean, it's important to know that shipping has increased by 300% between 1992 and 2012. In short, global marine traffic has increased fourfold in 20 years. This immense increase in shipping poses a massive threat to cetaceans including me, as you can see from the scars on my body. In addition, the global shipping poses a threat to a large amount of other sea creatures on this planet. Shipping has increased everywhere except along the coast of Somalia due to piracy (World Maritime News, 2014). The map below gives an indication of the the global shipping routes.

The shipping routes often overlap with the whales' habitats and their migration routes. This results in a higher risk of the occurences of shipstrikes. Consequently, more whales are victim of being struck by a ship and this diminishes the whale populations (World Maritime News, 2014). If you want to explore the habitats of several whale species click on the button below.

Getting hit by a ship isn't the only threat caused by the increase in marine traffic. The gigantic propellers of a ship cause loud noises and vibrations underwater. These noises affect our prey and in addition to this they can cause us:

• Hearing impairment
• Augmented stress
• Behavioural changes (depending on the size and distance of the ship)

Whales solely communicate through the use of sound. The method of communications depends on the species of whale and why they want to communicate. The sounds they make can consist of clicks, whistles and pulsed calls. Whales are very social mammals that rely on their vocal skills to communicate and to identify their surroundings. They don't have a great sense of smell and have poor vision. This is why whales can't communicate when a ship comes nearby.(WWF, 2021).

Most shipstrikes occur in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea . Approximately 62% of the incidents from 1820-2019 took place in this part of the world. The North-East coast of the US and Canada and the West coast of Greenland are also places where a lot of shipstrikes occur.

A large migration route goes all the way from Central America to the West coast of the US and Canada to Alaska. There are a lot of reported shipstrikes along this route (IWC, 2020).

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Starting in the 1980s, when I was about 40 years old, there was a rapid increase in shipstrikes. From 2000-2009 we reached a peak of 321 reported shipstrikes. However, after this peak there was a decline in the 2010s with 200 reported cases. In total there are 933 reported cases from 1820-2019. But I am sure there are a lot more unreported cases (IWC, 2020). The figure below depicts only all definite shipstrike cases per decade (so without the probable and possible cases).

Of the 933 cases, 818 have been identified. These 818 can be divided amongst 36 different whale species. In the 115 other cases, no species could be identified. Most shipstrikes reported involved fin whales, with 189 cases. Followed by the humpback whale, with 163 cases and sperm whales, with 102 cases (IWC, 2020). The figure below only depicts all definite shipstrike cases per decade (so without the probable and possible cases).

The age of the whale was only determined in 67 cases (from a total of 933 cases). Most whales struck by ships, as you can see in the figure below, are calfs and juveniles which makes me very sad. Altough this does make sense, because there is relatively more marine traffic in and around whale breeding grounds (IWC, 2020).

Most shipstrikes are caused by ferries. However, the remaining categories are responsible for approximately the same amount of shipstrikes. There is no apparent connection between the vessel types and the number of shipstrikes (IWC, 2020).

The importance of whales for ecosystems and CO2 storage has been underestimated for a long time, especially in Europe. When whales die they sink to the ocean floor and take with them all the carbon that is inside their inmense bodies, equal to the storage capacity of about 1.500-2.000 trees. There the carbon remains for hundreds of years. (Rugvin, 2021)

A study from 2010 concluded that whales, before commercial whaling, took between 190.000 and 1.9 million tonnes of carbon to the ocean floor each year. Instead, due to commerial whaling, they were killed and the carbon was released into the atmosphere. But that is not the only way we whales are helping reduce CO2-levels. Our iron-rich faeces is the perfect nourishment for phytoplankton. Phytoplankton can capture an estimated 40% of all CO2 produced today. That is four times the amount the Amazon rainforest captures. You can go to this site if you want to learn more about whales as ecological engineers:  https://rugvin.nl/walvissen-als-ecologische-ingenieurs/ . (Rugvin, 2021)

Governments, especially in Europe, are looking for ways to store large amounts of CO2. They are spending millions of euros on research and new technologies to store CO2 underground. If they would invest a fraction of this money to protect whales and to restore the whale populations worldwide to their original extent. These whale populations would help us a long way in reducing CO2 in the atmosphere and storing it for centuries. It would be way more than we could ever store ourselves (Yeo, 2021).

Phytoplankton can grow explosively over a few days or weeks. If you want to see how much whale poo affects the phytoplankton look at the sattelite images below. On the left you see a part of the ocean on the east of New Zealand on october 11th. On the right you see the same part of the ocean only 2 weeks later. Use the slider underneath to see the difference in phytoplankton. You can find more information on whale poo and simulate the effects of it if you click on this link:  https://whalepoosimulation.com/ .

Having a clear image of the whale population is important to understand whether that population is endangered and what consequence is required. With whales it is difficult to get a clear view on the current situation, since they are often deep underwater and are located in uninhabited places in the world. Despite this, the IWC (International Whaling Commission) is conducting surveys to get a clear image on population numbers (IWC, n.d.).

If you're curious about the sizes of the whales previously stated you can look in the figure below.

The Chilean Ministry of the Environment and the MERI Foundation banded together for The Blue BOAT Initiative. This project aims to preserve and protect whales, while also monitoring the oceans and marine ecosystems (The Blue Boat Initiative, 2021).

The Blue BOAT Initiative is an early warning system that warns ships when there are whales close by. With a network of smart buoys they detect the presence of whales with a hidrophone. A signal is then send to a satellite which relays it to an early warning station on the coast. The station then sends a warning to the ship. Leaving the ship with enough time to reduce their speed or change their course (The Blue Boat Initiative, 2021).

The Blue BOAT Initiative will start in the Gulf of Corcovado in the Chilean Patagonia. This area inhibits the largest number of blue whales. If the initiative proves to be succesful there are plans to cover the rest of the Chilean coast and the Pacific coast. So that the whales are protected all along their migratory routes. For more information on The Blue Boat Initiative you can visit their site with this link:  https://theblueboatinitiative.org/en/  (The Blue Boat Initiative, 2021).

There are three types of speed restrictions that are being implemented nowadays.

1. First there are permanent speed restrictions. These are enforced in zones where there always is a high risk of a collision.
2. Then there are seasonal speed restrictions which can be implemented during a season when migratory whales are breeding or feeding in that area. It can also be implemented in busy migration corridors.
3. Lastly there are dynamic speed restrictions, these can be implemented when responding to a real-time observation of a group of whales. This measure depends however on a reliable network and good communications between the port and the vessels (WWF, 2021).

The most effective way to reduce the effect of underwater noise on whales is to completely avoid certain areas where a lot of whales are. This using traffic lanes and separation zones that avoid large whale habitats and populations (WWF, 2021).

When ships can't go around the whales there are other measures vessels can implement to reduce underwater noise from vessels. A few of these measures are: good maintenance of the propeller and the hull, optimizing the propeller design so water flows more efficiently and the use of hub caps to minimize the vibrations of the propeller (WWF, 2021).