"Innovative systems to keep ships from hitting North Atlantic right whales are coming into use. The Trump administration is weighing whether they can replace a bedrock protection."
"Trackers that ping satellites every time a whale surfaces for air. Thermal cameras that can detect the animals day and night. Acoustic devices that monitor their calls.
These and other emerging technologies could help protect the world’s last surviving North Atlantic right whales from collisions with vessels, a leading threat to their survival. And the Trump administration, as part of its deregulatory agenda, is considering whether the new systems could replace a simple, core protection almost two decades old: seasonal speed limits for large vessels.
The innovations, some of which are already in use to various extents, collectively show great promise. But they each face limitations and would require enormous resources to roll out comprehensively, meaning they are not yet a viable substitute for broad, mandatory speed restrictions, according to interviews with several of the scientists who are developing the technologies.
“That geographic scale is going to be very, very, difficult,” said Mark Baumgartner, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who uses underwater acoustic monitoring to detect the whales. “It’s going to be expensive and it’s going to be a major challenge.”"
