Beginning this weekend off the coast of San Francisco, marine scientists from NOAA will begin a week-long test of a new mobile app designed to help reduce the numbers of whales struck and killed by commercial vessels. The app, developed by Conserve.IO, uses crowd-sourced information from sailors, fishermen and marine scientists who spot whales to track whales and whale movement. Using crowd-sourced data, the app plots whale locations onto marine charts. NOAA and the U.S. Coast Guard can then use the charts to recommend alternative vessel routes when primary routs are seeing heavy whale traffic. The app development and testing has also been supported by the shipping industry, which also began developing new shipping lanes this summer to move ships away from lanes with heavy whale traffic. The real-time data the app can provide will add to the shipping industry’s efforts to decrease whale collisions.

You can learn more about the program from NOAA’s web pages. linked here.

FISH ON!

 

California, NOAA, Whale

By Sid

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