Why Thousands of Whales Die Every Year. ships hits

An alarming number of whales are being killed by ship strikes. every year it's sunk in evidence these dead whales have a publicity problem In this story, we're going to investigate .what ship strikes mean for whale populations and what can be done to mitigate these incidents pictures like these show quite clearly what happens when a ship hits a whale whales can get lodged on the boughs of large vessels be badly injured or wash up on the beach .but most of them die unreported in the oceans with no photographic evidence a global ship strike database locked about a thousand two hundred collisions between whales and vessels in the years 2007 to 2016 but whale experts believe that the true number of deaths is far higher than the official count one of them is .

Michael Fishbach founder of the great whale Conservancy thousands of whales are hit and killed times higher and others. even more the reason for this assumption is that almost every large whale species in the world is negatively buoyant this means that a whale is denser than the water it displaces .when it dies it will end up sinking to the bottom .because its weight is greater than the buoyant force and just like that the full extent of the problem disappears from public view .along with the carcasses for like the blue whale ship strikes could drive populations to the brink of extinction for gradually recovering populations like humpbacks the increasing number of ship strikes .could mean a painful battle right now there are more than 50 thousand ships making their way around the globe including container ships oil tankers and cruisers .

were shipping lanes overlap with habwhale itats and migration routes the risk of ship strikes Rises whale experts have flagged the areas with the highest risk  an obvious question might spring to mind. why aren't ships able to avoid whales and why don't whales just get out of the ships way let's start with the ships .some of the world's biggest container ships are up to 400 meters long with a maximum width of 60 meters. they can carry up to 24,000 containers each avoiding a whale requires the bridge personnel to detect it at a sufficiently great distance to change course or speed and this is where the issue lies vessels of this size can only be maneuvered slowly it takes them several miles to turn or divert course and despite the efforts being made in research an accurate method for detecting and avoiding whales is yet to be found. so what about the whale's large whales have lived in the world's oceans for millions of years .

they have evolved to focus on feeding mating nursing their coughs and memorizing their migration routes and habitats but they haven't evolved to recognize .when a ship's bow is approaching even if a whale does see a ship and not all whales have excellent eyesight some species have very little vision it might not know that the big thing on the surface could be a lethal threat to for this very reason, the sound of propellers also functions as an amplification of the existing acoustic pollution in the oceans which complicates navigation and communication for them even further and if you put all those things together for whales do not have a chance it is up to us to stop hitting the whales they and whales for years whale experts researchers and conservationists have been trying to enforce this fundamental solution .

call the traffic separation scheme although it's an uphill struggle a few initiatives have been put into action. one success story comes from Panama Canal in the Gulf of Panama mostly humpback whales were moving through the waters near the entrance to the canal .while at the same time dozens of ships were using the canal. every day showed that mitigation measures may have resulted in more than the 90% drop traffic separation schemes have been established in other areas too but there are numerous high-risk areas on the map .where ruru ting can't be implemented in this case the next the solution is finding the right way to protect Wales .it's not about where but when ships should sail let's have a look In the following scenario, whales feed directly where their food sources like humpback.

 whales or blue whales that feed primarily on krill is a small crustacean that looks like a very small shrimp and because it's photosensitive it typically doesn't like a light in the daytime .whales have to dive down to depths of approximately 300 meters to find their food. but when it gets dark the krill begin their migration from the depths up to the surface and the whales follow the krill .so the whales are within the strike zone or the draft of these ships all night long typically .but in the daytime they're only within the strike zone of the ships when they're up getting air and then they go down to the depths. 

where their food is when we cannot move the shipping lanes the day/night issue or the day/night the solution is one that we favor greatly so ships could move during the day .but stop sailing at nighttime the third solution is to reduce the ship speed limit in high-risk areas .it's a method that was put in place near the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal .for example researchers recommend a speed limit of 10 knots to reduce the severity of injuries and minimize the chance of collisions. so solutions to protect whales do exist and there are some encouraging success stories but there are still places all over the world. where too many whales are dying unnoticed every day if the wells were not negatively buoyant there would be so many bodies floating people would not have stood for seeing .so many whale bodies floating in the ocean and this this this problem would have been fixed away from the sunken evidence needs to be brought to the the surface so that whale advocates get more public awareness incorporation to stop these ship strikes.