Zoom: Whale Conservation in the Channel Islands National

Global shipping is an often overlooked marine activity that is integral to commerce but carries a number of environmental impacts including local air pollution and inadvertent collisions with large whales that can be fatal.

These events, known as ship strikes, may be hindering the recovery of these protected species and are difficult to record or account for since most whales sink after fatal collisions.

Work in other areas of the world has shown that reducing ship speed is one way to reduce the risk of ship strikes, along with reducing harmful air emissions and underwater noise.

NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries has been working with partners to slow large vessels down in an effort to reduce fatal ship strikes.

This talk will discuss the ins and outs of running this conservation program and the next steps to protecting whales off the coast of California.