Overview
- The WhaleSpotter pilot went live Wednesday with thermal cameras on Angel Island and a Vallejo–San Francisco ferry feeding AI detections that specialists verify around the clock before alerts go out to vessel operators.
- Marine scientists say ship strikes kill roughly 40% of gray whales found dead in the Bay and the new alerts are designed to give captains minutes to slow or reroute to avoid collisions.
- The detection system senses whale heat signatures and exhaled breaths, maps locations on the public Whale Safe site, and routes verified warnings to the U.S. Coast Guard vessel traffic service and local mariners.
- Project partners plan to expand coverage over the next two years by adding cameras to more ferries and fixed sites such as the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz while lawmakers push for a dedicated Coast Guard “whale desk.”
- Scientists link the surge in Bay sightings and deaths to climate-driven declines in Arctic prey that are changing gray whale foraging behavior and complicating cause-of-death tracking because many carcasses drift away.