Ship collision risk threatens whales across the world’s oceans

2024/11/21 by Anna C. Nisi, Heather Welch, Stephanie Brodie +23 · 1 voice · 56 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics #Biology #Collision #Computer science #Environmental science #Fishery #Geography #Geology #Marine and coastal plant biology #Marine animal studies overview #Oceanography #Whale #Whaling

paper · doi:10.1126/science.adp1950

published in Science 386(6724), 870-875 (American Association for the Advancement of Science)

openalex publication_date 2024/11/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25

Abstract

After the near-complete cessation of commercial whaling, ship collisions have emerged as a primary threat to large whales, but knowledge of collision risk is lacking across most of the world's oceans. We compiled a dataset of 435,000 whale locations to generate global distribution models for four globally ranging species. We then combined >35 billion positions from 176,000 ships to produce a global estimate of whale-ship collision risk. Shipping occurs across 92% of whale ranges, and <7% of risk hotspots contain management strategies to reduce collisions. Full coverage of hotspots could be achieved by expanding management over only 2.6% of the ocean's surface. These inferences support the continued recovery of large whales against the backdrop of a rapidly growing shipping industry.

Citations

• Assessing the accuracy of species distribution models: prevalence, kappa and the true skill statistic (TSS)
• A practical guide to selecting models for exploration, inference, and prediction in ecology

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Discussions

• Nisi et al. mapped whale movement of 4 species in relation to shipping activity. "Shipping occurs across 92% of whale ranges". The northern horn of Sumatra is of high risk for sperm whales; consisten [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]

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