Green Marine partners advance satellite use to avoid right whale collisions

Four of the five Canadian companies awarded developmental contracts under the smartWhales initiative to advance solutions using satellite data to protect North Atlantic right whales in Canadian waters are Green Marine partners.

The companies – Arctus, Global Spatial Technologies Solutions, Hatfield, and WSP Canada – had all responded to a June 2020 request for proposals by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). Collaborating with Transport Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the CSA awarded contracts to these companies to advance the development of their whale detection and/or prediction technologies.

Arctus has developed SIMBA, an integrated modeling system that uses satellite images to learn more about the likely locations of the whales. Part of the SIMBA project involves creating maps of areas where the zooplankton that whales consume is found so this information can be combined with prediction models to better understand whale behaviour and movement. The presence of phytoplankton, the food source for zooplankton, is detected by a variation in water colour. The Quebec firm’s 3D modeling of the Gulf of St. Lawrence currents and other water conditions is expected to enhance the effectiveness of other locating technologies.

Global Spatial Technology Solutions (GSTS), which is already known for its OCIANA monitoring/decision-making platform for the maritime industry, has created an innovative feature that uses data from various satellite providers to screen for and detect whales at or just below the ocean surface. These detections are used to indicate the paths that present risks of vessel collisions so they can be avoided as part of OCIANA dynamic route and speed data recommendations to vessel operators to optimize their berth arrival.

Hatfield and its partners have developed a system that uses artificial intelligence to find potential whales in satellite images, quickly and automatically. This space-based detection system (SBDS) indicates only the parts of large satellite images where it’s possible that whales have been detected, which reduces the area that needs to be checked by some 98%. In a 2023 test over a 2,000 square kilometre (772 square mile) area, the SBDS located 75% of the whales in the satellite images in only a few hours compared to the days it would take a human to find. The locations are saved and displayed in an interactive map.

WSP Canada collaborated with DHI Water & Environment Inc., a Danish group that specializes in modeling aquatic environments, and other partners to develop a Web-based decision support system (DSS) that can forecast suitable whale habitats and predict whale movements in the Gulf of St. Lawrence for up to three days ahead. The DSS is based on academic and commercial modeling that includes hydrodynamic and ecological characteristics, such as ocean temperature, currents and the nutrient loads along with accurate vessel trajectories. For example, WSP tracks the oily traces left on the water by schools of copepods – the zooplankton on which right whales feed – that appear as spots in satellite imagery. The system’s accuracy has already been verified based on five years of records. The next phase will validate the tool’s accuracy in real time.

North Atlantic right whales, a species with fewer than 400 individuals, have migrated north over the past decade and now spend the summer in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, making the new technology important to avoid collisions. Improved risk forecasting will limit necessary vessel slowdowns and/or zone restrictions while better protecting the whales. Additional funding is required for the further testing of some of these technologies before they become fully operational.