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Where Do Whales Live? The Federal Government Wants To Map Where They Go · How To Protect The Ocean

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  Where do whales live? Have you ever wondered that? I
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  know it's an easy question. They live in an ocean, but where do they go? Where do
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  they eat? Where do they mate? Where
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  do they go on these large migrations and where do they stop? That's
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  an important question to ask because there is a bill that
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  was introduced to Congress by Democrats and
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  Republicans to find out where whales go. We're
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  going to talk about that on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Let's
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  start the show. Hey
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  everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm
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  your host, Andrew Lauren. This is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how
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  you can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live for a better ocean
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  by taking action. And today we're discussing a significant legislative
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  development aimed at enhancing the safety of both
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  whales and boaters through improved predictive mapping
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  technology. That is a mouthful, but I can't wait to
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  get into it, but before we do, I just wanted to let you
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  know that if you're new here and it's your new year's resolution to get more
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  into the ocean and try to learn more about
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  what you can do to live for a better ocean, you can do that by going
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  to our website, speakupforblue.com, that's speakupforblue.com,
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  because that's the website where you find out all of our episodes, our
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  YouTube channel, you'll find access to our podcast as well as
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  our network of podcasts. it's all right there and if you want
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  don't remember it or you haven't bookmarked speakupforblue.com all
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  you have to do is go to speakupforblue.com forward slash
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  access to information Monday to Friday at 8 a.m
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  well as three job advertisers, just in case you
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  wanna dedicate your entire career to protecting the
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  ocean, which is what I am doing and many, many people are doing. So
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  you can get access to that, go to speakupforblue.com forward slash
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  newsletter, and you can just put in your email and
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  you'll get access to that right away. All right, let's
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  get into it. So on December 5th, 2024, a bipartisan
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  group of U.S. legislators introduced the Whale Conservation
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  Habitat Analysis Research and Technical Strategies
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  Act, known as the Whale Charts Act. Like I
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  said before, scientists have really clever acronyms. So CHARTS, which
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  is Whale Conservation Habitat Analysis Research
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  and Technical Strategies Act, which is It's a mouthful.
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  It turns into Whale Charts Act, which the bill seeks to protect
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  baleen and sperm whales by enhancing our understanding of
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  their feeding areas, calving grounds, and migration routes.
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  This is really important to know. The primary objectives
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  of the Whale Charts Act include improving habitat maps, directing
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  the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, to
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  create high resolution, accurate distribution maps of baleen
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  and sperm whale populations. Developing predictive models. Forecasting
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  future shifts in whale habitats in response to
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  changing environmental conditions such as climate change, which is going to be really
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  important. Conducting targeted research. Focusing on understudied baleen
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  whale species to fill existing knowledge gaps. You would be
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  surprised. You would be surprised at how little we
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  know about whale distribution. You would think we'd know a lot with
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  tar, with tagging abilities. You would think we would know if
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  you're able to get access to that information and sharing. And we do
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  have some of that information, but with some baleen whale species, you
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  just don't know. And it's, it's really insane
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  to think about how much we don't know about these wonderful marine mammals. These
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  enhanced maps and models will be made available to both commercial and
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  recreational mariners aid in the prevention of dangerous collisions between
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  vessels and whales. Now think about this, the North Atlantic right whale
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  is a whale that is often struck by ships and there are
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  shipping lanes and the shipping lanes usually stay in place
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  and are monitored quite carefully because these are critically endangered species
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  that we're talking about. But these migration routes of
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  the North Atlantic right whale could be changing just because waters
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  are getting warm, circulations are changing, with the as
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  well as the fishing industry. So you just never know what's
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  going to happen. But what's interesting here is Congressman Vern Buchanan emphasized
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  the importance of this initiative, stating, with a thriving global marine
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  industry, it's critical that vessels can travel alongside
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  whale populations without risking dangerous collisions. The bill
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  encourages NOAA to utilize innovative data sources such
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  as passive acoustic monitoring and satellite imagery to enhance the
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  accuracy of these habitat maps. By integrating cutting-edge
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  technology, the Whale Charts Act aims to safeguard marine
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  wildlife and ensure safer navigation for boaters. Just
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  think about that. It's not very difficult to do. This is
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  not something that is controversial. We
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  have whales in the water. Whales have had shipping collisions.
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  And boats, depending on how big the boats are, could be in
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  danger as well as the whales have been in danger. A
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  large shipping container may not be in danger of hitting a whale, but they don't
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  want to hit whales. They want to make sure that they can avoid whales at
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  all times, but also get to their destination in an efficient manner.
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  Having this Whale Charts Act could allow that to
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  happen. As climate change and habitat degradation alter
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  wildlife migration patterns, Tools like predictive mapping become essential
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  in mitigating risks to both marine species and human activities. The
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  Whale Chart Axe represents a proactive step towards harmonizing
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  maritime operations with the natural behaviors of some of the ocean's
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  most majestic inhabitants. By leveraging advanced mapping technology,
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  we can create a safer environment for both whales and those
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  who are in the ocean, humans basically. So it's really important
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  that data is gathered. It's really important that maps are
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  made for this distribution. It's not just a map making exercise.
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  I was in GIS for a long time, and a lot of people are like, well, you're
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  a map maker. No, this is an analytical and predictive
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  model that is created based on real-time
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  data that's gathered, or real data that's gathered, not real-time, because
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  oftentimes you can't use real-time. But basically, you're looking at airborne
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  visualizations, like airborne observations. You're also
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  looking at passive acoustic data, where you can detect sounds in
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  the water, because these animals make sound. And you can also
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  use tagging to get access to where these individuals
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  are going. From that, you can detect where these migration routes are
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  being made, how they're changing from the previous ones.
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  And year over year over year, you can see if they're actually
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  changing. And if they are changing, you can find out why by looking
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  at other environmental factors. You can look at sea surface temperature. You
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  can look at anomalies like upwellings. Are they shifting in areas
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  where you would normally find whales and other large vertebrates
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  like sharks and tuna and so forth? And, you know, sometimes sea
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  turtles and seabirds where they actually feed and stop to feed because these
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  are areas where they're highly productive areas. All these switches, all
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  these changes that are happening, whether it's climate change,
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  whether it's just shipping changes or shipping lane changes, you
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  can observe year by year or even every five years and to find out
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  where these animals are going, map these
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  areas so that you can overlie it on other factors
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  such as shipping lanes, such as fishing areas, such as
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  other different humanized disturbances or potential disturbances
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  to make sure that there's very, very little, if
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  nothing, that will change or
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  that will harm these migration routes or these animals on these
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  migration routes. It's a really important study. It's
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  a really important bill that needs to go through. Now here's where you
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  come in. This is not a partisan bill. This is a
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  bipartisan bill. There's four Congress people that are involved. Two
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  of them are Republican and two of them are Democrats. this
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  is a really interesting bill that doesn't always get
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  talked about because it's small right and when you're looking at some of
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  the larger bills but this could pass because it has bipartisan support
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  but what you need to do is you need to show your representative
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  your federal representative when it comes time to do it if you can do
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  it before the new administration comes in Well, hey, let's try
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  and pass this through. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to put the names of
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  the representatives that are introducing this bill, and I'm going to put in
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  their contact information in the description of
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  the YouTube channel or of Spotify, or even
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  of the podcast app that you're listening to, the audio podcast app. I want
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  you to take a look at one of those. I want you to email one or all of
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  them and say that you're in support of this bill. You can use some of
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  the notes that you heard from this podcast or that you're watching from this podcast, and
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  you can use those as a summary to say, hey, this is why we need this,
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  and I'm really in support of this. How do we get this passed through? Can you let me
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  know? I would really be interested in the people who contact,
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  and if you hear back from anybody, let me know. You can contact me
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  using my Instagram, at howtoprotecttheocean. That's at howtoprotecttheocean.
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  And of course, if you want more information on oceans, ocean
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  news, especially in this upcoming new year, you can do so
• 9:27
  by subscribing to our YouTube channel and watching and
• 9:30
  hitting that notification bell so that you can get all the updates. If you're a
• 9:34
  YouTube fiend like myself and you sometimes you get lost in
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  the mix and you want notifications when The new episodes are
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  done every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I took a little bit
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  of a break over the Christmas break for me. I hope you guys had a
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  happy holidays, but we're back at it, trying to put out new episodes Monday,
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  Wednesday, and Fridays. So check them out, and I'll be adding something
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  new in the new year. So enjoy, but make sure you
• 9:57
  subscribe and hit that notification bell. That's it for the episode today. I
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  want to thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How
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  to Protect the Ocean podcast. Finishing off the year strong with a
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  great bill to map whales and to see where
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  they go so we can protect them and the humans that inhabit the
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  waters. So thank you very much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect