LFDCS glider detections trigger a NOAA Right Whale Slow Zone

AI system

System: DMON instrument running the Low-Frequency Detection and Classification System (LFDCS) on a Slocum glider
Model: Not assessed
Release: Not assessed
Application developer: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (Mark Baumgartner)
Role: Not assessed
Configuration: Not assessed
Inputs and outputs: Not assessed
Autonomy: Not assessed
Workflow: Glider or buoy carrying DMON/LFDCS in right whale habitat. Shore-based analyst validation protocol. NOAA Slow Zone program (established late 2020) accepting acoustic triggers.
Human oversight: Not assessed
Relation to AI: Automated classification produced the candidate detections. Analysts validated them on shore before NOAA acted. The resulting Slow Zone is voluntary.
AI contribution: Automated classification produced the candidate detections. Analysts validated them on shore before NOAA acted. The resulting Slow Zone is voluntary.

Benefits

Outcome identifiers: Not assessed
Benefit: mariners route around the area or transit at 10 knots or less
Category: Improved Environmental Sustainability
Status: Not assessed
Beneficiary groups: Society.
Beneficiaries: Not assessed
Reach: Not assessed
Distribution and access: Not assessed
Duration: Not assessed
Expected?: Yes
Costs and harms: Not assessed

Measurement

Studies: Not assessed
Study design: Not assessed
Measurement: Not assessed
Setting and sample: Not assessed
Measures: mariners route around the area or transit at 10 knots or less
Comparison: aerial surveillance
Results: Result: more slowdowns than aerial surveillance by a factor of two to five during fall and summer.
Additional value from AI: Not assessed
Limitations: Not assessed
Denominators: Not assessed
Materials for replication: Not assessed

Money

Kind of value: Not assessed
Amount: Not assessed
Currency and prices: Not assessed
Period and unit: Not assessed
Realization: Not assessed
Recipients and payers: Not assessed
Gross or net: Not assessed
Included costs: Not assessed
Comparison: Not assessed
Method: Not assessed
Return and payback: Not assessed

People and places

Participants: Developer: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (Mark Baumgartner). Operator: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center; NOAA Fisheries issues Slow Zones.
Jurisdictions: Benefit: Gulf of Maine east of Portland, United States. Developer: United States. Operator: United States.
Ownership and control: Not assessed
Dependencies: Not assessed
Cross-border connections: Not assessed
Geopolitical implications: Not assessed

Follow-up

Conditions for replication: Whales vocalize within detection range. Mariners comply voluntarily for any protective effect to materialize.
Replication attempts: 2 follow-up entries. Benefit recurred: 2.
Later findings: 21 January 2025. By early 2025 gliders had triggered or extended 51 of the 154 acoustically triggered Slow Zones, and on 20 January 2024 a glider made the first definite glider-based acoustic detection in southeast US waters.
Availability: Not assessed
Institutional decision: Not assessed
Grounds: Not assessed
Action and result: Not assessed
Success criterion: Not assessed

Evidence

Source numbers: AIBD-0036-source-0001–0005
Citations: Numbered references below.
Language: Not assessed
Source relationships: Operator, Developer
Original evidence: Not assessed
Access and versions: Not assessed
Supported findings: Not assessed
Evidence links: Not assessed
Evidence strength: Not assessed
Missing evidence: Not assessed

Grades

Assessed benefits: Society.
Depth: Society: 2.
Reasons: Society: A protective speed-reduction request for an endangered species over a defined area for about 15 days. No evidence that a strike was averted or that specific vessels complied.
Observed or intended: Not assessed
Rubric: Not assessed
Assessor and date: Not assessed
Alternative assessments: Not assessed
Fill: The deployer's account

Entry details

Kind

Not assessed

Related entries

Automated detection to protect an endangered species: the glider's whale-call classifier triggered a ship Slow Zone, while Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife's AI cameras failed to detect poachers and four rhinos were killed.

Field

Marine conservation / shipping. Endangered-species vessel-strike mitigation.

Purpose

LFDCS was built to detect and classify baleen whale calls in near real time for management use. The Slow Zone trigger was that purpose.

Dates

Date basis unassessed: 2023 (precision unassessed). Updated: 21 October 2026.

Stage

Not assessed

Version

SHA-256: 181041b30300…

References

Other identifiers: AI Incident Database: 219.
Category mappings: Not assessed
Brief: Not assessed
Revisions: 5 revisions. Latest: 21 October 2026.

Sources

Peer-reviewed study Developer

Indeck KL, Baumgartner MF, Lecavalier L, et al. (2025). Glider Surveillance for Near-Real-Time Detection and Spatial Management of North Atlantic Right Whales. Oceanography 38(Suppl. 1):13-21.
Regulatory document Deployer

NOAA Fisheries (29 Dec 2023). New Right Whale Slow Zone: East of Portland, ME - Effective Through 1/11. GovDelivery bulletin.
Regulatory document Deployer

NOAA Fisheries. Reducing Vessel Strikes to North Atlantic Right Whales (Slow Zones policy page).
Report Developer

Wilder J, Davis G, DeAngelis A, Van Parijs S, Baumgartner M (2023). Low-Frequency Detection and Classification System (LFDCS) Reference Guide. NOAA Institutional Repository.
Other Developer

Baumgartner M (WHOI). Low-Frequency Detection and Classification System (LFDCS) user manual (developer documentation).