AI system
- System
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Whale Safe: moored acoustic buoy with onboard call detection and classification (Baumgartner et al. 2019 system) plus sightings and habitat model, with AIS-based ship cooperation grading
- Model
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Not assessed
- Release
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Not assessed
- Application developer
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Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory, UC Santa Barbara (platform); 
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (buoy detection system) - Role
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Not assessed
- Configuration
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Not assessed
- Inputs and outputs
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Not assessed
- Autonomy
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Not assessed
- Workflow
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Moored acoustic buoy with onboard call detection and classification. Human analyst review of detections. Sightings and habitat-model data streams. AIS vessel tracking and public cooperation grading. NOAA voluntary speed reduction zones.
- Human oversight
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Not assessed
- Relation to AI
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The automated component is the buoy's onboard detection and classification of whale calls, the Baumgartner et al. 2019 system. Whale Safe's own methodology page says a human analyst then reviews it before it contributes to the Whale Presence Rating. Cooperation grades are computed from AIS data, not AI. Only the maker's pages and the developers' buoy paper are among the sources, and none records a dated outcome attributable to the detections.
- AI contribution
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The automated component is the buoy's onboard detection and classification of whale calls, the Baumgartner et al. 2019 system. Whale Safe's own methodology page says a human analyst then reviews it before it contributes to the Whale Presence Rating. Cooperation grades are computed from AIS data, not AI. Only the maker's pages and the developers' buoy paper are among the sources, and none records a dated outcome attributable to the detections.
Benefits
- Outcome identifiers
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Not assessed
- Benefit
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Whale Safe rates whale presence from acoustic buoys, sightings and a habitat model and grades ship cooperation with California's voluntary 10-knot zones; no avoided strike is documented.
- Category
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Improved Environmental Sustainability
- Status
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Not assessed
- Beneficiary groups
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People. Organizations. Society.
- Beneficiaries
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Not assessed
- Reach
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Not assessed
- Distribution and access
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Not assessed
- Duration
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Not assessed
- Expected?
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Yes
- Costs and harms
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Not assessed
Measurement
- Studies
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Not assessed
- Study design
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Not assessed
- Measurement
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Not assessed
- Setting and sample
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Not assessed
- Measures
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Not assessed
- Comparison
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Not assessed
- Results
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Not assessed
- Additional value from AI
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Not assessed
- Limitations
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Not assessed
- Denominators
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Not assessed
- Materials for replication
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Not assessed
Money
- Kind of value
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Not assessed
- Amount
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Not assessed
- Currency and prices
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Not assessed
- Period and unit
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Not assessed
- Realization
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Not assessed
- Recipients and payers
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Not assessed
- Gross or net
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Not assessed
- Included costs
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Not assessed
- Comparison
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Not assessed
- Method
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Not assessed
- Return and payback
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Not assessed
People and places
- Participants
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Developer:
Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory, UC Santa Barbara (platform); Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (buoy detection system). Operator: Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory with The Marine Mammal Center (San Francisco) and NOAA partners. - Jurisdictions
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Benefit: Santa Barbara Channel and San Francisco Bay region, California, USA. Developer:
United States. Operator: United States. - Ownership and control
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Not assessed
- Dependencies
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Not assessed
- Cross-border connections
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Not assessed
- Geopolitical implications
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Not assessed
Follow-up
- Conditions for replication
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Buoy operation (both regional buoys were listed offline when the pages were consulted). Analyst capacity for review. Shipping company attention to public grades. Evaluation linking ratings to speed changes and strikes, not yet documented.
- Replication attempts
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1 follow-up entries. Outcome unresolved: 1.
- Later findings
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No later outcome is established as of 20 October 2026. The statewide zone expansion occurred earlier in the 2026 season.
- Availability
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Not assessed
- Institutional decision
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Not assessed
- Grounds
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Not assessed
- Action and result
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Not assessed
- Success criterion
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Not assessed
Evidence
- Source numbers
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AIBD-0363-source-0001–0006
- Citations
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Numbered references below.
- Language
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Not assessed
- Source relationships
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Developer
- Original evidence
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Not assessed
- Access and versions
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Not assessed
- Supported findings
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Not assessed
- Evidence links
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Not assessed
- Evidence strength
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Not assessed
- Missing evidence
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Not assessed
Grades
- Assessed benefits
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People. Organizations. Society.
- Depth
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Not assessed
- Reasons
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People: No individual outcome. Organizations: Shipping companies' cooperation grades are published but no change attributable to Whale Safe is documented. Society: No avoided strike or population effect is documented.
- Observed or intended
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Not assessed
- Rubric
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Not assessed
- Assessor and date
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Not assessed
- Alternative assessments
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Not assessed
- Fill
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The makers' claim
Entry details
- Kind
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Not assessed
- Related entries
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Not assessed
- Field
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Marine mammal protection from ship strikes. University ocean science laboratory with federal and NGO partners.
- Purpose
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Provide near-real-time whale presence information and public cooperation grades so that ships slow in whale habitat; no attributable outcome is documented.
- Dates
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Date basis unassessed: 2026 (precision unassessed). Updated: 21 October 2026.
- Stage
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Not assessed
- Version
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SHA-256: bef437f3e20c…
References
- Other identifiers
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Not assessed
- Category mappings
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Not assessed
- Brief
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Not assessed
- Revisions
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4 revisions. Latest: 21 October 2026.
Sources
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Peer-reviewed study Developer
Baumgartner, M. F., Bonnell, J., Van Parijs, S. M., Corkeron, P. J., Hotchkin, C., Ball, K., et al. (2019). Persistent near real-time passive acoustic monitoring for baleen whales from a moored buoy: System description and evaluation. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 16 Jul 2019. doi:10.1111/2041-210X.13244
The moored buoy has been used to reduce the risk of ship strikes for right whales in a U.S. Coast Guard gunnery range
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Press release Developer
Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory (n.d.). Whale Safe methodology. whalesafe.com, fetched 20 Oct 2026.
The acoustic buoy uses a hydrophone (underwater microphone) and a tiny computer to detect and identify sounds in the water.
An analyst then reviews these data and indicates for each 15-minute period whether each of the monitored species was detected.
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Press release Developer
Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory (n.d.). Whale Safe homepage. whalesafe.com, fetched 20 Oct 2026.
Research demonstrates ships that slow to 10 knots in areas with high whale presence significantly reduce the danger to whales.
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Press release Developer
Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory (n.d.). About us. whalesafe.com, fetched 20 Oct 2026.
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Other Developer