The Santa Barbara Channel serves the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports, making it a busy shipping lane. Several whale species, including giant blue whales, use it as a migration route.
Because of that, ships collide with whales in the Channel about half a dozen times a year, usually with fatal consequences for the whales.
The area around the Channel Islands is a summer feeding ground for the blue whales, who migrate south in the winter. They’re at greatest risk from ships when on the move. Ship crews want to avoid them because whale strikes can damage ships, too. But they’re hard to see from a ship’s bridge, especially at night, and ships can’t stop on a dime. Scientists liken the problem to “kids that run out in traffic.”
One way of reduce the risk of whale collisions is by slowing ship traffic during migrations (see story here). After years of studying whale behavior, scientists have learned the blue whales’ song patterns change just before they begin migrating. By listening for this with audio devices, they can warn ship controllers that whales are on the move (read story here). Kind of like alerting drivers that kids are playing near the street.
Photo: Blue whale killed by ship in Santa Barbara Channel in 2017
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