This campaign has now closed
ORCA are working to help protect whales from collisions from ships by studying and understanding the way that these gentle giants react to large vessels. Our cutting edge research is helping to better understand this threat in real-time and will give vital insights into how we can prevent it
Categories
Beneficiaries
Situation
Each year, thousands of large whales are killed by ship strike, with collisions with vessels driving some species to the brink of extinction. For animals that were hunted in unimaginable numbers for centuries, this new threat is pushing them to the edge of disappearing from our oceans forever, and with shipping traffic projected to triple by 2050, the threat will only get worse. Species from fin whales to sperm whales are running a daily gauntlet and ORCA want to help give them a better chance.
Solution
The key to solving this issue is understanding how collisions happen. We know that any time there whales in an area of heavy shipping a collision is far more likely - but what we don't understand is how the whales spot vessels and what they do to try and avoid a collision. If we could get a better understanding of this, we could give better guidance to navigators and captains on large ships to help them avoid collisions and reduce the number of whales hit each year.
