{"id":180,"date":"2026-05-22T11:44:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T11:44:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=180"},"modified":"2026-05-22T11:44:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T11:44:26","slug":"ai-cameras-scan-san-francisco-bay-to-help-protect-whales-from-deadly-ship-strikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=180","title":{"rendered":"AI cameras scan San Francisco Bay to help protect whales from deadly ship strikes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A new network of artificial intelligence-powered thermal cameras is watching Bay Area waters for gray whales who have started using the San Francisco Bay as feeding grounds, aiming to warn ship captains and avert deadly collisions in one of the region\u2019s busiest waterways.<\/p>\n

Read more Arellano: How a fast food taco showed us who Steve Hilton really is<\/a><\/p>\n

The new network, launched this week with the installation of two thermal cameras, can locate whales around the clock and in poor visibility, including fog and darkness, then alert boat captains with enough time for them to change course and avoid ships strikes \u2014 one contributor to high numbers of whale deaths in the bay in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in San Francisco Bay, a place known for technology, science and maritime innovation, and this project brings all of those communities together around a shared goal: reducing the risk of a vessel strike while maintaining navigational safety,\u201d said Kathi George, director of Cetacean Conservation Biology at the Marine Mammal Center. \u201cThat\u2019s incredibly powerful, and it has the potential to serve as a model for ports and waterways around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scientists began seeing gray whales swim into San Francisco Bay around 2018, George said. In 2025, they documented 36 gray whales in the bay, with each spending an average of about three weeks there. This year, they have documented 16.<\/p>\n

But foraging for food in the Bay comes with its own dangers: the waterway is one of the busiest in the country, putting the mammals at high risk of colliding with ships, McCauley added.<\/p>\n

In 2025, 21 gray whales were found dead in and around the San Francisco Bay, with 40% of the whale carcasses showing evidence of injuries from boat strikes, Rhodes said.<\/p>\n

Gray whales usually \u201cforage, feed and pack on the pounds in the Arctic\u201d before embarking on \u201cone of the largest mammal migrations on the planet\u201d down to Mexico, where their breeding grounds are located, said Douglas McCauley, director of the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory. But in recent years, climate-driven changes in the Arctic have reduced food availability, forcing some gray whales to stop for food along their migration route before continuing north. The species currently has its lowest population numbers in 55 years, with only between 12,000 and 13,000 whales \u2014 about half of what it was 10 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they used to depart on that migration, they would be leaving with, you might say, a full tank of gas or a three-quarter tank full of gas, and they can make it all the way down on this remarkable migration, they can make it all the way back up with their energy reserves,\u201d McCauley said. \u201cWith these recent changes to the Arctic, best consensus in the scientific community \u2026 is that they\u2019re effectively running out of fuel now, because they\u2019re leaving now instead of with a full tank, something more like a half tank of gas. Less food, less energy reserves, less blubber.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The program, developed by the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory in collaboration with the Marine Mammal Center and U.S. Coast Guard\u2019s Vessel Traffic Service, uses thermal WhaleSpotter cameras to detect the heat signature of whale blows as they surface in the bay, scientists said.<\/p>\n

Those sightings are then confirmed by marine mammal specialists and mapped on the Whale Safe website. That information is then shared with boaters through the website or by the Coast Guard, which can share the information with boat captains in radio calls they already make to point out hazards in the bay, said Rachel Rhodes, the scientist leading the project at Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf captains and crews know where whales have recently been spotted along their route, they can be on high alert, slowing down or rerouting when possible, which really helps reduce the risk of ship strike,\u201d Rhodes said.<\/p>\n

Read more Walters: Gavin Newsom\u2019s last budget still would leave California\u2019s finances wobbly<\/a><\/p>\n

The first two cameras were installed on Angel Island and on the MV Lyra, a passenger ferry running between downtown San Francisco and Vallejo, Rhodes said. Both installations target areas that see a high number of whale sightings and a lot of ship traffic.<\/p>\n

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The whale spotting technology has been under development for more than a decade and focuses on detecting the difference in temperature between the body of water and the whale\u2019s spout, said Daniel Zitterbart, co-founder and chief scientist at WhaleSpotter. The AI has been trained on hundreds of thousands of examples and can \u201cvery reliably\u201d detect the whales. The device has two thermal cameras, a computer and a cell modem built into it. It also has a color camera that can take photos of whales to be used for species identification.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to have this technology on boats or on land, to be able to detect whales far enough ahead of a vessel, or early enough, to give mariners enough warnings so that they can take action,\u201d Zitterbart said.<\/p>\n

Unlike human observers, the cameras can detect whales around the clock and in poor visibility, including fog, George said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives us eyes on the water 24 hours a day,\u201d George said. \u201cWhales don\u2019t disappear at night or in the fog. This camera helps close that gap. It allows us to detect whales where we previously couldn\u2019t, and that could change how we protect whales in complex urban waterways like San Francisco Bay.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the first two hours after its installation, the Angel Island camera reported 180 whale detections, Zitterbart said.<\/p>\n

Last month, U.S. Rep. Sam Liccardo introduced a bill, dubbed the \u201cSave Willy Act,\u201d that would implement a \u201cwhale desk\u201d at the U.S. Coast Guard\u2019s San Francisco station. The desk would track the movements of whales through the bay and warn marine vessel operators of their locations to avoid collisions.<\/p>\n

Scientists hope to install additional cameras throughout the bay in the future, in locations such as the Golden Gate Bridge, on Alcatraz or on other ferries, Rhodes said. Eventually, they hope to install enough infrastructure to be able to track individual gray whales, McCauley added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen we can actually \u2026 (interpolate) across our different sensor networks to effectively track a whale as it moves back and forth across the bay, as it stops to feed, as it rests, as it travels, so we could see whales as they move across this busy working space the same way you can track a bus as you\u2019re waiting at the bus station with its approach, the arrival of your Amazon delivery truck, your Waymo,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we could do it for Amazon delivery trucks, we ought to be able to do it for, arguably, a more important use case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Horoscopes May 22, 2026: Naomi Campbell, you\u2019ll surpass your expectations<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The technology aims to mitigate deaths caused by boat strikes, which contributed to 40% of gray whales deaths in the bay last year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nAI cameras scan San Francisco Bay to help protect whales from deadly ship strikes - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=180\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AI cameras scan San Francisco Bay to help protect whales from deadly ship strikes - 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