Blue Whales and Blue Skies Vessel Speed Reduction Programme

Assembled from 15 blocks · 1 evidence · 18 related

1. Story
2. A voluntary scheme asking large vessels of 300 gross tons or more to slow to 10 knots or less through designated zones along the California coast, covering feeding grounds and migration corridors, and incentivising shipping lines to comply. Reporting on the 2025 season states that 787 vessels from 44 shipping lines slowed over more than 481,000 nautical miles, that participating vessels cut fatal strike risk to blue, fin and humpback whales by 40 percent against a 2016 baseline, and that underwater radiated noise intensity fell by 70 percent. It is being extended as a statewide voluntary programme under California Assembly Bill 14. It is a rare case where a mitigation for a migratory species is measured in the same units as the shipping it regulates.
3. Knowledge
4. Vessel Collision with Large Whales
5. Blue Whales and Blue Skies Vessel Speed Reduction Programme
6. Connections
7. Vessel Collision with Large Whales
8. California voluntary speed reduction reports its 2025 season
9. Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus)
10. Santa Barbara Channel
11. Blue Whales and Blue Skies Vessel Speed Reduction Programme
12. Eastern North Pacific blue whales are estimated near carrying capacity
13. California voluntary speed reduction reports its 2025 season
14. Evidence
15. In the 2025 season 787 vessels across 44 shipping lines voluntarily reduced speed over more than 481,000 nautical miles in designated zones along the California coast; participating vessels reduced fatal strike risk to blue, fin and humpback whales by 40 percent against a 2016 baseline and cut underwater radiated noise acoustic intensity by 70 percent. The programme asks vessels of 300 gross tons or more to slow to 10 knots or less and is being extended statewide under California Assembly Bill 14. V55 verification basis: retrieved in search summary of agency announcements; the underlying analyses were not obtained, and the risk reduction is reported for participating vessels rather than for all traffic.