Whales are marine mammals that are generally at or near the top of the food chain in their local ecology. Whale conservation comprises the set of research, policy-making, and economic activities aimed at protecting and preserving whale populations.
Human activity has put pressure on whales since before the advent of written records.
Evidence of whale hunting may date back as far as 6000 BCE, based on archeological research work conducted at the Bangudae site in South Korea.
By the mid-1800s, the global whaling industry had reached its peak. Electricity (as a source of light) and petrochemicals (as a source of lubricants and materials) would eventually lead to the whaling industry's decline. An estimated 300,000 sperm whales were killed between the early 1700s and the end of the 1800s. It is estimated that nearly 3 million whales were wiped out as a result of industrial-scale whaling––accelerated by diesel ships and exploding harpoons––between 1900 and 1999.
Apart from whaling, whales face other threats from human activity:
- By-catch (e.g. entanglement in fishing gear)
- Ship strikes
- Toxic contamination
- Noise pollution (such as from sonar and underwater resource extraction activities)
- Habitat degradation
There are a number of technologies that are used for tracking whales in the wild.
Whales are capable of diving to great depths and can stay submerged for relatively long periods of time—nearly four hours, in the case of one Cuvier’s beaked whale. But since they breathe air, whales must surface periodically. Baleen whales feed on krill and other small creatures that typically stay near the ocean’s surface. A combination of whale biology and behavior makes it possible to track them from the sky using either human-flown aircraft or uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), following applicable local and federal regulations.
So-called “SnotBots” are custom-built or modified uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) that are fitted with sample-collection equipment, such as petri dishes or microscope slides.
Small UAVs are able to fly close above the water’s surface and can position themselves above a whale’s blowhole. The mucus droplets expelled from a whale’s blowhole contain microbes and chemical signatures that can help scientists understand the condition of any particular whale and help assess the health of local whale populations as a whole. Researchers have established that whale mucus can be a viable replacement for taking blubber samples.
Video from the Ocean Alliance YouTube channel.
The nonprofit Ocean Alliance and the Olin College of Engineering launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter in July 2015. By the end of the campaign in August 2015, Ocean Alliance had raised nearly $230,000 from over 1,700 backers.
Acoustic hydrophone
An acoustic hydrophone is a device that picks up sound waves and ocean noises from animals such as whales and dolphins and acts similarly to a microphone. Hydrophones, unlike sonar, are not harmful to ocean mammals. Most are composed of ceramics that create an electrical current when exposed to changes in underwater pressure. Hydrophones are highly precise in capturing sound according to the NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL).
While submerged underwater, the hydrophone will produce small voltages over various frequencies when subjected to ocean or animal noises from any direction. Though a single hydrophone can pick up sound waves from various directions, omnichannel hydrophones (or numerous hydrophones spread across a few to thousands of miles creating a network) can be used to track the movements of fish, whales, dolphins, and other marine life.
Whale Safe is an initiative from the University of California Santa Barbara's Benioff Ocean Initiative––in collaboration with whale biologists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Texas A&M University Galveston, the University of California Santa Cruz, University of Washington, and NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center––that tracks whale and shipping activity to provide new scientific research into how to reduce the risk of whale-ship collisions, specifically in the Santa Barbara Channel.
Screen capture of the WhaleSafe.com site, as of April 2021
The system uses acoustic monitoring and ship routing data to map potential overlaps between whales and ships. Whale Safe also incorporates map coordinates of verified sightings.
An autonomous underwater vehicle is an uncrewed underwater vehicle that can navigate and move without human assistance or input. AUVs are a portion of the larger grouping of undersea systems known as uncrewed underwater vehicles, which includes remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROV) and underwater gliders.
AUVs have various purposes and applications from research, to drug trafficking. In research, the autonomous vessel moves along the ocean floor, and when equipped with sensors, can provide data back to scientists about the chemical composition of the water and the surrounding sand. It can also be used to measure water concentrations, absorption and refraction of light, and microscopic life presences.
Underwater gliders are a form of an AUV that is often used in whale conservation and location tracking. Gliders are capable of moving forward, backward, and side-to-side. They can be equipped with various types of sensors like other AUVs, to collect data on the ocean and its wildlife.
Underwater glider for whale research.
In a study conducted at the Baumgartner Lab, gliders were used to track the vocalizations of Baleen whales by equipping the gliders with high-resolution acoustics sensors. Initially, the project was set for the duration of a week, but when the gliders proved effective over longer periods of time the study was extended to a period greater than one month.
Gliders have been determined to be a cost-effective, durable, and safe method for whale monitoring and research, as opposed to the traditional method of studying the large mammal from traditional watercraft.
Whale conservation is the focus of many academic research labs and nonprofit organizations.
