U.S. News: New Tack Is Tried To Save the Whales --- In San Francisco Bay, AI-powered cameras will help ships avoid hitting the mammals

“SAN FRANCISCO -- "Whale, 12 o'clock!" Kathi George called out from the bow of a yacht last week. Then, as if to caution the whale, she added: "Ferry! Be careful."

 

Migrating gray whales and ships are on a collision course in the San Francisco Bay, with at least seven whales dead so far this year -- many from vessels -- after 21 fatalities in 2025.

 

To ease the deadly traffic jams, George, the director of whale conservation biology at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, Calif., and other researchers are deploying whale-breath detectors powered by artificial intelligence.

 

A network of thermal cameras launched Tuesday in the San Francisco Bay will monitor the giant ocean mammals, which can reach a length of some 50 feet, and alert boat captains in the vicinity.

 

So far, one camera is posted on a Coast Guard tower, using AI and thermal technology to spot the warm breath of the gray whales when they come up for air. A second will soon board one of the fast-moving ferries that crisscross the bay, with more cameras planned as part of a two-year pilot project by the UC Santa Barbara's Benioff Ocean Science Lab and partners like the Marine Mammal Center and Coast Guard.

 

"Every day is a nail-biter," said Douglas McCauley, director of the Benioff lab and a UC Santa Barbara professor. "This new system will save whales' lives."

 

Ship traffic is a growing threat to whales worldwide, emerging as a top killer of cetaceans in all oceans, according to federal research. To help mariners spot them, a company called WhaleSpotter commercialized the whale-breath detection technology, which also has been used on containerships.

 

Collisions with ships are an added danger for gray whales that migrate between feeding grounds in Alaska and Mexico to give birth, a 12,000-mile round trip that scientists say has become harder because their food source is diminishing due to changing ocean conditions. Over the past decade, gray whale numbers have plunged by about half from 26,000, McCauley said.

 

Now, the whales are so famished they are increasingly looking for food along the way, he said, including in the San Francisco Bay. The problem: The bay is one of the world's most bustling shipping areas, plied by ferries, oil tankers, cargo vessels and cruise liners.

 

One of the whales' favorite feeding spots is in a triangle bounded by Angel Island, San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge -- among the busiest ship freeways in the bay. The first whale-breath camera was put into service about two weeks ago at a Coast Guard tower on Angel Island.

 

"This is unfortunately a hot spot for where the whales are hanging out," said Rachel Rhodes, a scientist leading the whale-detection effort for Benioff, as she and other researchers set out on a yacht from Sausalito.

 

As the vessel neared the island -- and Rhodes lost her ball cap in the wind -- an app on the laptop she cradled lit up with digital WhaleSpotter images of whales exhaling, called "blows." Minutes later, she spotted the telltale puff of water ahead, not far from Alcatraz.

 

"I think that one we just picked up on the camera," Rhodes said.

 

The yacht stopped as Rhodes and the other researchers scanned the water, some using binoculars. "There's been one whale that we have nicknamed Stegosaurus that has been seen," George said. "He was here a couple of days ago."

 

Suddenly, the whale's dark body arced above the surface before diving down to reveal its tail, or fluke. Seeing a ferry headed nearby, Greg Friedman, owner of the yacht and a board member of the Marine Mammal Center, reported the whale sighting to the Coast Guard, which alerted nearby vessels.

 

"The whales are at a real disadvantage, they can't move out of the way fast enough," Friedman said.

 

One and possibly two more whales were spotted, all also revealed on Rhodes's laptop by the thermal images of their breath. Returning to Sausalito, the team passed bleached whale bones on an Angel Island beach, a grim reminder of what they were up against.

 

"This is a Band-Aid," McCauley said, "but it's a Band-Aid to a pretty significant bleed."” [1]

 

1. U.S. News: New Tack Is Tried To Save the Whales --- In San Francisco Bay, AI-powered cameras will help ships avoid hitting the mammals. Carlton, Jim.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 20 May 2026: A3.