{ "id": "AIBD-0363", "title": "Whale Safe (Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory) combines buoy acoustic detection, sightings and habitat models into whale presence ratings and grades ship cooperation with 10-knot slowdowns", "summary": "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.", "date_observed": "2026-10-20", "date_basis": "unassessed", "date_precision": "unassessed", "benefit_status": null, "source_collection": null, "source_entry": null, "account": "Whale Safe is run by the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory at UC Santa Barbara's Marine Science Institute. Its site describes it as a technology-based mapping and analysis tool. It displays whale and ship data for the Santa Barbara Channel and the San Francisco Bay region. Its methodology page cites Baumgartner et al. 2019. It says the acoustic buoy “uses a hydrophone (underwater microphone) and a tiny computer to detect and identify sounds in the water”. After that, “An analyst then reviews these data and indicates for each 15-minute period whether each of the monitored species was detected”. Acoustic, sighting and Blue Whale Habitat Model streams are combined over a five-day window into a Whale Presence Rating. AIS data are used to compute each vessel's cooperation rate with NOAA's voluntary 10-knot recommendation, graded A+ to F. The homepage states that “Research demonstrates ships that slow to 10 knots in areas with high whale presence significantly reduce the danger to whales”. The operator score-card page on record lists 2026-season cooperation rates by shipping company with letter grades. Partners named on the about page include Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center, The Marine Mammal Center and others. The buoy system's peer-reviewed description (Baumgartner et al. 2019, Methods in Ecology and Evolution) reports false detection rates of 0% to nearly 0%. It reports daily missed detection rates of 12% to 42% for a Massachusetts buoy. No cited source gives a dated ship slowdown, cooperation change or avoided strike attributable to Whale Safe detections.", "category": "general benefit", "unexpected": false, "purpose": "Provide near-real-time whale presence information and public cooperation grades so that ships slow in whale habitat; no attributable outcome is documented.", "system": "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_version": null, "developer": "Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory, UC Santa Barbara (platform); Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (buoy detection system)", "deployer": "Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory with The Marine Mammal Center (San Francisco) and NOAA partners", "location": "Santa Barbara Channel and San Francisco Bay region, California, USA", "domain": "Marine mammal protection from ship strikes", "segment": "University ocean science laboratory with federal and NGO partners", "benefit_type": "Improved Environmental Sustainability", "taxonomy_note": "No avoided strike is documented; whale conservation is read as “improved environment”.", "registry_ids": {}, "ratings": [ { "group": "personal", "depth": null, "reason": "No individual outcome." }, { "group": "organizational", "depth": null, "reason": "Shipping companies' cooperation grades are published but no change attributable to Whale Safe is documented." }, { "group": "societal", "depth": null, "reason": "No avoided strike or population effect is documented." } ], "ai_role": { "status": "assessed", "statement": "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." }, "evidence": [ { "kind": "press release", "citation": "Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory (n.d.). Whale Safe methodology. whalesafe.com, fetched 20 Oct 2026.", "title": "Whale Safe methodology", "url": "https://whalesafe.com/methodology/", "date": null, "written_by": "makers", "quote": "The acoustic buoy uses a hydrophone (underwater microphone) and a tiny computer to detect and identify sounds in the water." }, { "kind": "press release", "citation": "Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory (n.d.). Whale Safe methodology, analyst review.", "title": "Whale Safe methodology (analyst review)", "url": "https://whalesafe.com/methodology/", "date": null, "written_by": "makers", "quote": "An analyst then reviews these data and indicates for each 15-minute period whether each of the monitored species was detected." }, { "kind": "press release", "citation": "Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory (n.d.). Whale Safe homepage. whalesafe.com, fetched 20 Oct 2026.", "title": "Whale Safe", "url": "https://whalesafe.com/", "date": null, "written_by": "makers", "quote": "Research demonstrates ships that slow to 10 knots in areas with high whale presence significantly reduce the danger to whales." }, { "kind": "other", "citation": "Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory (2026). Whale Safe operator score cards (2026 season). whalesafe.com, accessed 20 Oct 2026.", "title": "Whale Safe tool: operator score cards", "url": "https://whalesafe.com/whale-safe-tool/", "date": null, "written_by": "makers", "quote": null }, { "kind": "press release", "citation": "Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory (n.d.). About us. whalesafe.com, fetched 20 Oct 2026.", "title": "Whale Safe: about us", "url": "https://whalesafe.com/about-us/", "date": null, "written_by": "makers", "quote": null }, { "kind": "peer-reviewed study", "citation": "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", "title": "Persistent near real-time passive acoustic monitoring for baleen whales from a moored buoy: System description and evaluation", "url": "https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13244", "date": "2019-07-16", "written_by": "makers", "quote": "The moored buoy has been used to reduce the risk of ship strikes for right whales in a U.S. Coast Guard gunnery range" } ], "replication": { "produced_by": [ "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" ], "must_hold": [ "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" ], "echoes": [ { "date": null, "setting": "Massachusetts buoy used to reduce ship-strike risk for right whales in a US Coast Guard gunnery range (Baumgartner et al. 2019)", "model_version": null, "outcome": "unknown", "source": "https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13244" } ] }, "paired_incident": null, "headline": "Whale Safe grades ship cooperation with 10-knot slowdowns", "metric": null, "comparator": null, "later": { "status": "unknown", "date": null, "note": "No later outcome is established as of 20 October 2026. The statewide zone expansion occurred earlier in the 2026 season.", "quote": null, "url": null }, "value": null, "developer_country": "United States", "deployer_country": "United States", "unrated_because": null, "brief_notes": null, "brief": null, "revisions": [ { "date": "2026-10-20", "change": "Record drafted from the cited sources.", "source": null, "editor": "AIBD" }, { "date": "2026-10-21", "change": "Country of the developer and the deployer added from the organization's own site or a registry.", "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,_Santa_Barbara; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,_Santa_Barbara", "editor": "AIBD" }, { "date": "2026-10-21", "change": "Prose pass: account, the replication conditions, the system's part rewritten in shorter sentences with abbreviations expanded; facts, figures and quotations unchanged.", "source": null, "editor": "AIBD" }, { "date": "2026-10-21", "change": "Notes about which sources could be read were reworded for readers; facts, figures and quotations unchanged.", "source": null, "editor": "AIBD" } ], "confidence": "claimed", "shade": "low", "claim_status": "The makers' claim", "claim_basis": "Sources: the makers' peer-reviewed study, three press releases from the makers and the makers' other. The cited evidence includes no independent source and no finding by a regulator or court.", "profile": { "case_id": "AIBD-0363", "catalog_version": "1.0.0", "source_fingerprint": "bef437f3e20ceec57cd481f5f750c5fdc9d98909d6ec24d523b1865c6e49fb67", "collection_refs": [ { "collection_id": "aibd", "version": "snapshot-8bf7cfec9cb185aa" }, { "collection_id": "aibd", "version": "2026-10-25" } ], "source_ids": [ "AIBD-0363-source-0001", "AIBD-0363-source-0002", "AIBD-0363-source-0003", "AIBD-0363-source-0004", "AIBD-0363-source-0005", "AIBD-0363-source-0006" ], "families": { "strategic assessments": { "state": "not_assessed", "review_state": "not_assessed", "coverage": "partial", "record_ids": [] }, "evaluations": { "state": "not_assessed", "review_state": "not_assessed", "coverage": "partial", "record_ids": [] }, "monetary observations": { "state": "not_assessed", "review_state": "not_assessed", "coverage": "partial", "record_ids": [] }, "institutional decisions": { "state": "not_assessed", "review_state": "not_assessed", "coverage": "partial", "record_ids": [] } }, "fields": { "actors[]": { "state": "value_present", "value": { "kind": "record_fields", "fields": { "developer": "Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory, UC Santa Barbara (platform); Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (buoy detection system)", "deployer": "Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory with The Marine Mammal Center (San Francisco) and NOAA partners" } }, "provenance": { "kind": "legacy_record", "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.", "record_fields": [ "developer", "deployer" ], "source_refs": [] }, "review_state": "record_mapped", "coverage": "partial" }, "actors[].ownership_control": { "state": "not_assessed", "review_state": "not_assessed", "coverage": "partial" }, "ai_contribution": { "state": "value_present", "value": { "kind": "record_fields", "fields": { "ai_role": { "status": "assessed", "statement": "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." } } }, "provenance": { "kind": "legacy_record", "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.", "record_fields": [ "ai_role" ], "source_refs": [] }, "review_state": "record_mapped", "coverage": "partial" }, "ai_relationship": { "state": "value_present", "value": { "kind": "record_fields", "fields": { "category": "general benefit", "ai_role": { "status": "assessed", "statement": "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." } } }, "provenance": { "kind": "legacy_record", "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.", "record_fields": [ "ai_role", "category" ], "source_refs": [] }, "review_state": "record_mapped", "coverage": "partial" }, "assessments[].alternatives": { "state": "not_assessed", "review_state": "not_assessed", "coverage": "partial" }, "assessments[].assessor_date": { "state": "not_assessed", "review_state": "not_assessed", "coverage": "partial" }, "assessments[].depth": { "state": "not_assessed", "review_state": "not_assessed", "coverage": "partial" }, "assessments[].display_confidence": { "state": "value_present", "value": { "kind": "structured", "data": { "confidence": "low", "evidence_word": "claimed", "claim_status": "The makers' claim", "basis": "Sources: the makers' peer-reviewed study, three press releases from the makers and the makers' other. 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Its site describes it as a technology-based mapping and analysis tool. It displays whale and ship data for the Santa Barbara Channel and the San Francisco Bay region. Its methodology page cites Baumgartner et al. 2019. It says the acoustic buoy “uses a hydrophone (underwater microphone) and a tiny computer to detect and identify sounds in the water”. After that, “An analyst then reviews these data and indicates for each 15-minute period whether each of the monitored species was detected”. Acoustic, sighting and Blue Whale Habitat Model streams are combined over a five-day window into a Whale Presence Rating. AIS data are used to compute each vessel's cooperation rate with NOAA's voluntary 10-knot recommendation, graded A+ to F. The homepage states that “Research demonstrates ships that slow to 10 knots in areas with high whale presence significantly reduce the danger to whales”. The operator score-card page on record lists 2026-season cooperation rates by shipping company with letter grades. Partners named on the about page include Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center, The Marine Mammal Center and others. The buoy system's peer-reviewed description (Baumgartner et al. 2019, Methods in Ecology and Evolution) reports false detection rates of 0% to nearly 0%. It reports daily missed detection rates of 12% to 42% for a Massachusetts buoy. No cited source gives a dated ship slowdown, cooperation change or avoided strike attributable to Whale Safe detections.", "benefit_type": "Improved Environmental Sustainability" } }, "provenance": { "kind": "legacy_record", "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.", "record_fields": [ "account", "benefit_type" ], "source_refs": [] }, "review_state": "record_mapped", "coverage": "partial" }, "outcomes[].distribution": { "state": "not_assessed", "review_state": "not_assessed", "coverage": "partial" }, "outcomes[].duration": { "state": "not_assessed", "review_state": "not_assessed", "coverage": "partial" }, "outcomes[].id": { "state": "not_assessed", "review_state": "not_assessed", "coverage": "partial" }, "outcomes[].stakeholder_group": { "state": "value_present", "value": { "kind": "record_fields", "fields": { "ratings": [ { "group": "personal", "reason": "No individual outcome." }, { "group": "organizational", "reason": "Shipping companies' cooperation grades are published but no change attributable to Whale Safe is documented." }, { "group": "societal", "reason": "No avoided strike or population effect is documented." } ] } }, "provenance": { "kind": "legacy_record", "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.", "record_fields": [ "ratings" ], "source_refs": [] }, "review_state": "record_mapped", "coverage": "partial" }, "outcomes[].status": { "state": "not_assessed", "review_state": "not_assessed", "coverage": "partial" }, "outcomes[].tradeoffs": { "state": "not_assessed", "review_state": "not_assessed", "coverage": "partial" }, "outcomes[].unexpected": { "state": "value_present", "value": { "kind": "record_fields", "fields": { "unexpected": false, "purpose": "Provide near-real-time whale presence information and public cooperation grades so that ships slow in whale habitat; no attributable outcome is documented." } }, "provenance": { "kind": "legacy_record", "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.", "record_fields": [ "unexpected", "purpose" ], "source_refs": [] }, "review_state": "record_mapped", "coverage": "partial" }, "places[]": { "state": "value_present", "value": { "kind": "record_fields", "fields": { "location": "Santa Barbara Channel and San Francisco Bay region, California, USA", "developer_country": "United States", "deployer_country": "United States" } }, "provenance": { "kind": "legacy_record", "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; 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Persistent near real-time passive acoustic monitoring for baleen whales from a moored buoy: System description and evaluation. 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Its site describes it as a technology-based mapping and analysis tool. It displays whale and ship data for the Santa Barbara Channel and the San Francisco Bay region. Its methodology page cites Baumgartner et al. 2019. It says the acoustic buoy “uses a hydrophone (underwater microphone) and a tiny computer to detect and identify sounds in the water”. After that, “An analyst then reviews these data and indicates for each 15-minute period whether each of the monitored species was detected”. Acoustic, sighting and Blue Whale Habitat Model streams are combined over a five-day window into a Whale Presence Rating. AIS data are used to compute each vessel's cooperation rate with NOAA's voluntary 10-knot recommendation, graded A+ to F. The homepage states that “Research demonstrates ships that slow to 10 knots in areas with high whale presence significantly reduce the danger to whales”. 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No cited source gives a dated ship slowdown, cooperation change or avoided strike attributable to Whale Safe detections.", "replication": { "produced_by": [ "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" ], "must_hold": [ "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" ], "echoes": [ { "setting": "Massachusetts buoy used to reduce ship-strike risk for right whales in a US Coast Guard gunnery range (Baumgartner et al. 2019)", "outcome": "unknown", "source": "https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13244" } ] } } }, "provenance": { "kind": "legacy_record", "basis": "Preserved from the existing AIBD record; external sources were not rechecked.", "record_fields": [ "account", "replication" ], "source_refs": [] }, "review_state": "record_mapped", "coverage": "partial" } }, "summary": { "total": 91, "addressed": 91, "known": 28, "reviewed": 0, "record_mapped": 28, "not_assessed": 63, "complete": false, "by_state": { "value_present": 28, "not_reported": 0, "unresolved": 0, "not_assessed": 63, "not_applicable": 0, "withheld": 0, "source_unavailable": 0 } } } }