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A new class developed by whale biologists and marine pilots in Southeast Alaska will soon teach mariners how to avoid hitting humpback whales when sailing large ships through the region. The training comes as the state’s cruise industry booms.
Humpback whales migrate thousands of miles from their winter breeding grounds in Hawaii and Mexico to feed in Alaska’s rich waters over the summer. And that’s when ship traffic surges with hundreds of cruises and whale watching tours. This summer, some ports in Southeast expect to see a record number of cruise ship passengers.
Chris Gabriele, a whale biologist at Glacier Bay National Park, and her colleagues published a scientific paper in 2019 demonstrating that large ships can maneuver around whales. The results inspired the research team to make a class that shows mariners how.
“It teaches them about whale behavior and how to maybe help predict where the whales are going to move, and then suggests strategies to avoid collisions,” Gabriele said.
In Alaska, it’s illegal for vessels to get within 100 yards of humpback whales, speed near them, block their path or disrupt their behavior. But it’s still common for ships to hit whales, causing severe and sometimes fatal injuries.
Gabriele said the new class will kick off at the University of Alaska Southeast in Ketchikan this August. The plan is to make the training modules available anywhere that can run them.
“Any maritime training facility could offer it anywhere at no cost,” Gabriele said.
That means cruise employees from abroad who plan to sail in Southeast could soon take the class in their home countries.
Gabriele said the curriculum incorporates computer simulations that use data collected by marine mammal observers aboard large cruise ships that sailed through Glacier Bay National Park.
“So in the simulations, we try to authentically portray whale behavior in terms of the movement and dive patterns,” she said.
The curriculum is also infused with the knowledge of local marine pilots, who help large ships navigate through local waters.
Rich Preston, with the Southeast Alaska Pilots’ Association, has been a marine pilot in Southeast for 16 years and helped Glacier Bay scientists develop the class.
“Pilots have a responsibility to the state of Alaska, with our licensing, that we take care of life, property and the environment,” Preston told KTOO from the Discovery Princess docked in Hoonah on Tuesday. “Whales are lives, and whales are also part of the environment, so there you go. It’s a responsibility that I believe we all have.”
Preston said students will practice maneuvering around whales with six computer simulations that get progressively more difficult throughout the day-long class. Four students can take the class at a time, roleplaying a typical bridge team of a large ship: pilot, officer of the watch, helmsman and lookout.
“The lookout says, ‘I see a whale.’ Everybody looks in that direction where the lookout spotted the whale, and then a command is given to try and maneuver the ship, and then it takes time for a vessel to turn,” Preston said, summarizing how the scenarios work. “It just doesn’t turn on a dime. It’s not like a car.”
Preston said that time-lag means the bridge team must work together to make good decisions quickly.
“I would say that most of the time it is possible to do something,” he said. “It all comes down to, quite honestly, how far away is the whale when we spot it? And how fast is the vessel going?”
He said many cruise ships can reach a top speed of about 22 knots, but they’re typically going around 15 knots. Preston said pilots slow down to about 10 knots in areas with whales. Bridge teams often know where those areas are by using Whale Alert, an app that maps crowd-sourced whale sightings.
Right now, the class is specific to humpback whales in Southeast, but Gabriele said it could be adapted to other species and places in the future.
