Jasivi Arcos Díaz was born in Xalapa, Veracruz, a mountainous city where it is often said that all four seasons can be experienced in a single day. At the age of six, when her parents were able to subscribe to cable television, she began watching documentaries on Animal Planet and Discovery Channel. She was fascinated by everything related to animals, and it was during this time that she decided she wanted to study biology. A few years later, when she was around nine years ol

The Port of Chancay, located approximately 70 kilometers north of Lima, Peru, is rapidly becoming one of the most important maritime infrastructure projects in South America. Designed to accommodate the world's largest container vessels, the deep-water port is expected to transform Peru into a major logistics hub connecting South America directly with Asia, reducing shipping times, increasing trade efficiency, and strengthening regional economic development. As commercial act

A shared commitment to solving a shared problem The Whale Guardians strategy to mitigate ship strikes rests on three pillars working in concert. First, we collect high-integrity whale sighting data in shipping corridors - building route-specific, seasonally grounded observations where none currently exist. Second, we translate that data into evidence-based routing recommendations, delivered to navigational software via our API so that captains can act on it in real time. Thir

"Wah Kwong Maritime Transport is a global integrated shipping company based in Hong Kong, with offices in Shenzhen, London, Genoa, Singapore, and Dalian. For over 70 years, we have been investing in, owning, and operating shipping assets through market cycles. Established by T. Y. Chao and now in its third generation of Chao family leadership, Wah Kwong currently has four main business streams: ship owning, ship management, dry bulk operating, and energy - combining a proud s

The API Is Live. Here Is Why That Changes Everything. This month, Whale Guardians formally announced the launch of our routing API - a milestone that marks the moment our work moved from research and advocacy into the operational heartbeat of the global shipping industry. But to understand what the API truly represents, you first need to understand where it comes from. That is the story of SCOUT. A Strategy Built on Three Pillars Whale Guardians was founded on a clear and urg

The Whale Guardians team have made some significant progress on our Whale Routing App the past few weeks. This is crucial to our mission because our app allows our shipping partners to actually include up-to-date and safe routing recommendations in their route planning software. This is the most effective and operationally sound way to avoid ship strikes with whales. What we’ve accomplished in the past weeks We now include all known and approved whale routing recommendation

Better routing decisions could prevent many of the thousands of whale deaths caused by ship strikes each year. That is why Acceleron is partnering with Whale Guardian to bring whale‑protection data directly into voyage optimization. Together, the two organizations are working to incorporate Whale Guardians' routing recommendations into Accelleron's OptiNav AI solution. Built on years of scientific research, these recommendations will help ship operators avoid areas where wh

Message from Julio Cardoso Diretor/Coordenador Projeto Baleia a Vista: "The first humpbacks were seen last april 16th and since then we have seen mainly juveniles humpbacks almost everyday and in a growing number every day and some are very actives (breaching, tail slapping) just in the areas of shipping routing. We have call alert system (whales inside the channel) about 2 or 3 times per week since then. The São Sebastião Port, the Tebar (Oil Terminal) and the Ferryboats are

José Truda Palazzo, Jr. is the Institutional development Coordinator of Instituto Baleia Jubarte. A co-founder of several marine conservation organizations in Brazil, Uruguay and Chile, he served as Alternate Commissioner for Brazil at the International Whaling Commission for almost two decades and helped develop the Brazilian cetacean protection legislation, as well as participated in the establishment of several marine protected areas. An author of 16 books on environmental

In 2025 the Whale Guardians teamed up with our Brazilian Partners at Instituto Baleia Jubarte and funded additional whale surveys on the offshore or easterly portions of the Abrolhos Bank in Brazil. These surveys made it clear that the season where the vessels of the international fleet needed to transit a bit futrther to the east and off the entire Bank needed to be extended by one month. So the routing document for Abrolhos has officially been extended to include the month

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is currently considering modifications to the North Atlantic right whale vessel speed rule, opening a public comment period through June 2, 2026. The proposed initiative explores replacing seasonal 10-knot speed restrictions with alternative management areas and advanced technology-based strike-avoidance measures. While technological modernization is a promising long-term goal, the maritime industry must confront a stark current re

Founded in 2018, SEA.AI is a European maritime technology company developing AI-powered vision systems designed to detect objects at sea that conventional tools simply miss. Where radar and AIS fall short, covering unlit vessels, floating debris, persons overboard, and marine animals surfacing briefly, SEA.AI's combination of optical and thermal cameras, driven by deep learning algorithms, steps in to provide real-time awareness, day and night. Originally born out of the dema

About Michael Fishbach and whale guardians

Since the early 2000s, multiple scientific reports have been made of sightings of great whales (blue, fin and humpback) in Mejillones bay. The oceanographic opwelling is observed along the coast of the Mejillones peninsula. Upwelling brings nutrient-rich water from the deep sea towards the surface and it is these nutrients that attract cetaceans. In order to protect these animals from ship strikes, the first routing guidelines for Mejillones were issued in 2022 based on an in

Whales have been adapting to change on earth ever since one day, about 55 million years ago, in the ancient Tethys Sea, when a dog-sized, hoofed, four-legged animal began to discover that life in the watery world was a better bet for survival than the struggles it faced on land. One good day at a time, these terrestrial-gone aquatic animals splashed around in their new habitat. Initially they had to constantly lift their noses up out of the water to breathe. Evolutionary suc

After graduating as a Business Engineer from the University of Antwerp, Hélène began her professional career as a business analyst at a software company. In 2019, she transitioned to the maritime industry, joining the Royal Belgian Shipowners’ Association (KBRV). Following a presentation by Whale Guardians co-founder Capt. Michael Barbaix in 2022, she became convinced of the urgent need to take action to minimize ship strikes. Recognizing that regulatory action through the In

Antofagasta sits within the Atacama desert, the driest non-polar desert of planet earth, and is described as a laid back Chilean city, home to about half a million people. It is one of the planet's major mining hubs, exporting copper, nitrate, iodine, gold, silver, iron ore, lithium, cement and lime, and other refined materials such as steel, from its seven-berth port. Between two to three thousand ships come and go annually from the port, traveling through the habitat of end

Innovations and Insights from Ocean Innovation Africa A few weeks ago, I ( Gregory Vogt ) attended the Ocean Innovation Africa conference at the Durban International Conference Centre with the intention of networking on behalf of Whale Guardians South Africa. The event provided an excellent platform to connect with professionals dedicated to ocean conservation and innovation. Expert Workshops and Focus on Ocean Innovation On the second day of the conference, five expert work

The Port of Mejillones is situated in a habitat like no other - a place of the greatest possible contrast between the Peruvian (or Humboldt) Current, one of the richest sea currents of our blue planet - wild and full-of-life - and the driest, most devoid-of-life desert, the Atacama, gateway and home to some of the planet's largest copper, nitrate, gold, silver and lithium mines. A place in which the needs of some of earth's most rich and magnificent wildlife, and our present

WHERE DO THE MAJORITY OF SHIP/WHALE ENCOUNTERS OCCUr AND WHAT IS THE ONLY REAL SOLUTION TO FIX THIS GLOBAL ISSUE? The global ocean is a vast, interconnected part of our planet covering roughly 70% of its surface. Our human counterparts in these complex waters are, without question, the great whales. They are warm blooded mammals just like us, they have large brains just like us, and they communicate and cooperate with their own species, just like us. Many of them live in fami