Where do whales live? Where do they go? These are just some of the questions the US federal government would like to answer by introducing a bill (H.R. 10292) called the Whale CHARTS Act.
In this episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast, host Andrew Lauren discusses the recently introduced Whale Conservation Habitat Analysis Research and Technical Strategies Act, also known as the Whale Charts Act. This bipartisan legislation aims to enhance the protection of baleen and sperm whales by improving our understanding of their feeding areas, calving grounds, and migration routes.
Key points covered in the episode include:
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Objectives of the Whale Charts Act: The bill seeks to create high-resolution distribution maps of whale populations, develop predictive models to forecast shifts in whale habitats due to climate change, and conduct targeted research on understudied baleen whale species.
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Importance of Mapping: Enhanced mapping and predictive modeling are crucial for preventing dangerous collisions between vessels and whales. The North Atlantic right whale, for example, is often struck by ships, and understanding their migration routes is essential for their conservation.
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Use of Technology: The act encourages the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to utilize innovative data sources, such as passive acoustic monitoring and satellite imagery, to improve the accuracy of habitat maps. This technology integration aims to safeguard marine wildlife while ensuring safer navigation for boaters.
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Bipartisan Support: The episode emphasizes that the Whale Charts Act has bipartisan support, making it a viable piece of legislation that could pass. Listeners are encouraged to contact their federal representatives to express support for the bill.
Overall, the episode highlights the significance of mapping and tracking whale populations not only for their protection but also for the safety of human activities in marine environments. By leveraging advanced technology and data, the Whale Charts Act represents a proactive step towards harmonizing maritime operations with the natural behaviors of whales.
Link to article: https://ecomagazine.com/news/policy/new-bill-introduced-to-improve-predictive-mapping-technology-for-whale-and-boater-safety/
US Congresspeople associated with the bill:
Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Florida): https://buchanan.house.gov/constituent-validation Rep. Doris Matsui (D-California): https://matsuiforms.house.gov/contact/ Rep. Nicole Malliotakis(R-New York): https://malliotakis.house.gov/contact Rep. Jared Huffman (D-California): https://huffman.house.gov/contact/
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Where do whales live? Have you ever wondered that? I know it's an easy question. We live in an ocean, but where do they go? Where do they eat? Where do they mate? Where do they go on these large migrations? And where do they stop? It's an important question to ask because there is a bill that was introduced to Congress by Democrats and Republicans to find out where whales go. We're gonna talk about that on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast. Let's start the show. (upbeat music) Hey everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lorne. This is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live for a better ocean by taking action. And today we're discussing a significant legislative development aimed at enhancing the safety of both whales and boaters through improved predictive mapping technology. That is a mouthful, but I can't wait to get into it. But before we do, I just wanted to let you know that if you're new here and it's your news resolution to get more into the ocean and try to learn more about what you can do to live for a better ocean, you can do that by going to our website, SpeakUpForBlue.com. That's SpeakUpForBlue.com. Because that's the website where you find out all of our episodes, our YouTube channel. You'll find access to our podcast as well as our network of podcasts. It's all right there. And if you want to get that information to your inbox because maybe you don't remember it or you have a bookmark SpeakUpForBlue.com, all you have to do is go to SpeakUpForBlue.com/newsletter to put in your email. You'll get access to information Monday to Friday at 8 a.m. Eastern. You get three news articles, our latest episodes, as well as three job advertisers, just in case you want to dedicate your entire career to protecting the ocean, which is what I am doing and many, many people are doing. So you can get access to that. Go to SpeakUpForBlue.com/newsletter and you can just put in your email and you'll get access to that right away. All right, let's get into it. So on December 5th, 2024, a bipartisan group of US legislators introduce the whale conservation, habitat analysis, research and technical strategies act, known as the Whale Charts Act. Like I said before, scientists have really clever acronyms. So charts, which is conservation, habitat analysis, research and technical strategies act, which is, it's a mouthful. It turns into Whale Charts Act, which the bill seeks to protect baleen and sperm whales by enhancing our understanding of their feeding areas, calving grounds and migration routes. This is really important to know. The primary objectives of the Whale Charts Act include improving habitat maps, directing the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA to create high-resolution, accurate distribution maps of baleen and sperm whale populations, developing predictive models, forecasting future shifts in whale habitats, in response to changing environmental conditions, such as climate change, which is gonna be really important, connecting targeted research, focusing on understudied baleen whale species to fill existing knowledge gaps. You would be surprised, you would be surprised at how little we know about whale distribution. You would think we'd know a lot, with target, with tagging abilities, you would think we would know if you're able to get access to that information sharing, and we do have some of that information. But with some baleen whale species, you just don't know. And it's really insane to think about how much we don't know about these wonderful marine mammals. These enhanced maps and models will be made available to both commercial and recreational mariners, aid in the prevention of dangerous collisions between vessels and whales. Now think about this, North Atlantic right whale, is a whale that is often struck by ships. And there are shipping lanes, and the shipping lanes usually stay in place, and are monitored quite carefully, because these are critically endangered species that we're talking about. But these migration routes of the North Atlantic right whale could be changing, just because waters are getting warm, circulations are changing, their food is changing, areas, and we just don't know where they're gonna go. We've seen the shift in migrating to the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada. With that migration came a lot of deaths once they went to that area, and adaptations had to be made with the shipping industry, as well as the fishing industry. So you just never know what's gonna happen. But what's interesting here is, Congressman Vern Buchanan emphasized that the importance of this initiative stating with the thriving global marine industry, it's critical that vessels can travel alongside whale populations without risking dangerous collisions. The bill encourages NOAA to utilize innovative data sources, such as passive acoustic monitoring, and satellite imagery to enhance the accuracy of these habitat maps. By integrating cutting edge technology, the Whale Charts Act aims to safeguard marine wildlife and ensure safer navigation for boaters. Just think about that. It's not very difficult to do. This is not something that is controversial. We have whales in the water. Whales have had shipping collisions. And boats, depending on how big the boats are, could be in danger as well as the whales have been in danger. You know, a large shipping container may not be in danger of hitting a whale, but they don't want to hit whales. They wanna make sure that they can avoid whales at all time, but also get to their destination in an efficient manner. Having this Whale Charts Act could allow that to happen. As climate change and habitat degradation, alter wildlife migration patterns, pools like predictive mapping become essential in mitigating risks to both marine species and human activities. The Whale Charts Act represents a proactive step for its harmonizing maritime operations with the natural behaviors of some of the ocean's most majestic inhabitants. By leveraging advanced mapping technology, we can create a safer environment for both whales and those who are in the ocean, humans basically. So it's really important that data is gathered. It's really important that maps are made for this distribution. It's not just a map-making exercise. I was in GIS for a long time. And a lot of people are like, "Well, you're a map-maker." No, this is an analytical and predictive model that is created based on real-time data that's gathered or real data that's gathered, not real-time, 'cause oftentimes you can't use real-time. But basically you're looking at airborne visualizations, like airborne observations. You're also looking at passive acoustic data where you can detect sounds in the water because these animals make sound. And you can also use tagging to get access to where these individuals are going. From that, you can detect where these migration routes are being made, you know, how they're changing from the previous ones. And year over year over year, you can see if they're actually changing. And if they are changing, you can find out why by looking at other environmental factors, you can see surface temperature. You can look at anomalies like upwellings. Are they shifting in areas where you would normally find whales and other large vertebrates like sharks and tuna and so forth and sometimes sea turtles and seabirds where they actually feed and stop to feed because these are areas where they're highly productive areas. All these switches, all these changes that are happening, whether it's climate change, whether it's just shipping changes or shipping lane changes, you can observe year by year or even every five years and to find out where these animals are going, map these areas so that you can overlay it on other factors, such as shipping lanes, such as fishing areas, such as other different humanized disturbances or potential disturbances, to make sure that there's very, very little, if nothing, that will change or that will harm these migration routes or these animals on these migration routes. It's a really important study. It's a really important bill that needs to go through. Now, here's where you come in. This is not a partisan bill. This is a bipartisan bill. There's four congresspeople that are involved. Two of them are Republican and two of them are Democrats. This is a really interesting bill that doesn't always get talked about because it's small, right? And then when you're looking at some of the larger bills, but this could pass because it has bipartisan support. But what you need to do is you need to show your representative, your federal representative, when it comes time to do it. If you can do it before the new administration comes in, well, hey, let's try and pass this through. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to put the names of the representatives that are introducing this bill and I'm going to put in their contact information in the description of the YouTube channel or of Spotify or even of the podcast app that you're listening to, the audio podcast app. I want you to take a look at one of those. I want you to email one or all of them and say that you're in support of this bill. You can use some of the notes that you heard from this podcast or that you're watching from this podcast and you can use those as a summary to say, hey, this is why we need this and I'm really in support of this. How do we get this pass through? Can you let me know? I would really be interested in the people who contact and if you hear back from anybody, let me know you can contact me using my Instagram at how to protect the ocean. That's at how to protect the ocean. And of course, if you want more information on oceans, ocean news, especially in this upcoming new year, you can do so by subscribing to our YouTube channel and watching and hitting that notification bell so that you can get all the updates if you're a YouTube being like myself and you sometimes you get lost in the mix and you want notifications when the new episodes are done every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I took a little bit of a break over the Christmas break for me. I hope you guys had a happy holidays, but we're back at it, trying to put out new episodes, Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. So check them out and I'll be adding something new in the new year. So enjoy but make sure you subscribe and hit that notification bell. That's it for the episode today. I want to thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast, finishing off the year strong with a great bill to map whales and to see where they go so we can protect them and the humans that inhabit the waters. So thank you very much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time and have your conservation. (upbeat music)
