Whale heat signatures in San Francisco Bay being tracked to prevent ship collisions

Marine scientists say that roughly 40% of gray whales that die in San Francisco Bay are killed in collisions with ships. Now, scientists are using AI to try to save the lives of those whales.

More and more people are spotting gray whales in San Francisco Bay. Scientists say climate change is impacting their food source, forcing the whales to venture into the bay for food. While many are thrilled to see the whales, this has also increased the number of dead whales found in the area.

"The problem has been getting worse," Dr. Douglas McCauley, the director of the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory, said. "Last year was an awful year for gray whales in San Francisco. We saw 21 gray whales that died in the greater Bay Area. So far, we saw seven gray whales and a large fraction of those are being killed by ships."

And those are the whales that scientists believe they can save.

"This is a problem we can solve right now," Dr. McCauley said. "That this new data and the community came around it can solve."

The first major step in saving the whales from ship strikes officially launched this week. A group of marine mammal experts gathered in San Francisco to launch Whale Spotter.

"About an hour after plugging it in, we saw 180 blows," he said. "That's not 180 whales, but a handful of whales being active in the bay."

These devices detect heat signatures in whales. One was placed at the U.S. Coast Guard station on Angel Island, and the other on a ferry that travels between San Francisco and Vallejo.

"First, you have a whale that comes up and takes a breath," he said. "It blows. It's a warm breath so the thermal sensing system sees the heat of the breath against the cold ocean."

AI then puts the detected heat signatures on a map, and that information is sent to mariners within minutes. The hope is for ships to then avoid the area or at least slow down in enough time to stop hitting them.

"For all of us to be able to see the power of AI applied for, in our opinion, is such an important use case for looking after whales," he said. "Keeping our oceans safe is exactly where we want the power of those tools out first so it's really."