Where Do Whales Live? The Federal Government Wants To Map Where They Go

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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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to get that information to your inbox because maybe you

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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

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hitting that notification bell so that you can get all the updates. If you're a

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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

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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