Ships Offered Incentives To Slow Down Around California’s Coastal Whales

A whale-saving initiative is underway that involves offering ships incentives to slow down when traveling through the Santa Barbara Channel.

A whale-saving initiative is underway that involves offering ships incentives to slow down when traveling through the Santa Barbara Channel.

Agreements have been struck with a number of shipping companies, each of which receives 25 hundred dollars for every vessel that successfully puts on the brakes.

12 knots, rather than the usual 14 to 16, has been designated as the rate of travel that will make a difference in the number of whales falling victim to ‘ship strikes’.

According to experts, the quantity of the large marine animals that succumbs to such accidents is far larger than the physical evidence of corpses washing up on shore indicates.

Due to their negative buoyancy, if one is hit they are unlikely to float.

The program was inspired by pollution-cutting measures taken in the ports of both Los Angeles and Long Beach.

In addition to saving whales, it’s anticipated that the presence of smog in the area near the channel will decline as well.

The trial program goes through the end of October, and for it to continue additional funding will need to be secured.