National Grid Ventures (NGV) has developed a tool called WhaleWatch which allows the public to track the impact of ocean vessel traffic on whales along the East Coast of the United States of America. Vessel activity was analysed for the past six years, processing 4.7 billion data points and an estimated 775 million kilometres of vessel traffic. By giving NGV the tools to work around the whales’ natural migration patterns and reassuring the public that their local marine environment is a priority, WhaleWatch will support the energy transition to more responsible offshore renewable energy.
In 2023, NGV identified a significant issue: the development of offshore wind farms on the US East Coast, urgently required to combat climate change by reducing the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels, faced a threat due to growing public concern that offshore wind farms kill whales. In response, alongside the external affairs team and marine experts, the Digital Innovation team at NGV began exploring solutions. They discovered, fortunately, that the data indicated minimal impact on whales from offshore wind development. However, it also revealed a path to further reduce the impact on whales and for NGV to become leaders in responsible marine development.
Tool development and implementation
The digital team proposed an interactive map called WhaleWatch which would display historical whale sightings, offshore vessel activity, and the noise produced by vessels along the entire US East Coast. This tool would enable people to see for themselves that offshore wind activity is minimal in comparison, with minimal impact on whales.
Maritime vessel locations are tracked by the Automatic Identification System (AIS), mandated by law for any ship weighing 300 gross tonnes or more. However, the data produced by the 39,000 vessels navigating the US East Coast annually is vast. The NGV team analysed daily vessel activity for the past six years, processing 4.7 billion data points and an estimated 775 million kilometres of vessel traffic. As the data set is so large, it was previously impossible for members of the general public to make sense of this data and understand the threat posed to precious underwater ecosystems by various maritime activities.
To democratise access to this data, the NGV digital team developed WhaleWatch as a web application visualising vessel traffic and noise overlaid with whale sighting locations. To calculate underwater noise, the team implemented a noise density model, aggregating the sound emitted from ocean vessels daily into 56,458 grid squares (approximately 5×5 km each). This model considers vessel type (cargo, fishing, passenger, etc) and time spent in each grid cell to calculate the equivalent continuous sound level. Additionally, the web application breaks down underwater noise by vessel category, allowing users to explore the impact of different vessel types on every whale observed.
The tool revealed that cargo vessels contributed 67% of noise from moving vessels. This finding is significant as it enables environmental campaigners to focus efforts on maritime activities posing the highest risk to whale populations. In contrast, vessels operating on National Grid’s offshore wind farms contributed only 0.09% of total traffic in 2023.
Furthermore, of the 866 Humpback and North Atlantic Right Whale sightings in 2023, only three were potentially within five kilometres of National Grid’s offshore wind vessels on any given day. Of these three, no vessels were recorded within two hours and one kilometre of the whale sightings. This finding comprehensively dispels the myth that wind farm construction vessels significantly impact the Atlantic whale population.
Together, these findings underscore the importance of data in informing environmental campaigns and local planning policies. The construction of wind farms is crucial for transitioning from fossil-fuelled power stations to renewable electricity sources and mitigating the threat of climate change. Without investment in projects like offshore wind farms, the carbon dioxide emitted from fossil-fuelled power stations will exacerbate climate change, warm the oceans, and pose a greater threat to marine wildlife.
Ultimately, the WhaleWatch tool emphasises the value of data-driven environmental policies while promoting the responsible construction of maritime infrastructure projects.
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