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Tell NOAA and the Coast Guard to Warn Every Ship Before It Kills a Right Whale
Final signature count: 69
69 signatures toward our 30,000 goal
Sponsor: Free The Ocean
Fewer than 370 North Atlantic right whales remain, and ships are still killing them in waters where a warning system already exists.
Fewer than 370 North Atlantic right whales remain alive. The population is growing, but only just — and vessel strikes continue to cut into that fragile progress.6 These are not freak accidents. They are predictable, preventable deaths happening in some of the busiest shipping corridors on the Atlantic coast.
Right whales feed and travel near the surface. They cannot dive fast enough to escape a ship bearing down on them. At typical commercial speeds, a captain who spots a whale has almost no time to stop or steer clear. The result is blunt-force trauma that is nearly always fatal.
The Fix Already Exists — It's Just Not Reaching Enough Ships
Every commercial vessel is already required to carry an Automatic Identification System transponder for navigational safety. Researchers and agencies have adapted that same system to push real-time whale-location alerts directly to ship bridges. In early 2026, NOAA Fisheries launched an AIS-based speed alert program that draws from aerial surveys, acoustic monitoring, and other detection data to warn mariners before a strike can happen.1,3
Private developers are moving in the same direction. Companies like MotionInfo have built AIS-based messaging tools that extend the system's reach and versatility.4 Acoustic buoys, drone surveillance, and AI-assisted monitoring are expanding the detection network that feeds these warnings.7 The technology pipeline is real and it works.
Coverage Gaps Are Where Whales Die
The problem is scale. NOAA has acknowledged that advanced detection technologies are not yet deployed broadly enough to protect whales across their full range.2 Right whale habitat has shifted northward in recent years, moving animals into waters not covered by existing speed restrictions or alert systems.5 High-risk areas exist right now where vessel operators receive no warnings at all. That gap between where the technology reaches and where whales actually travel is where preventable deaths happen.
Mariners are not the enemy here. Most want to avoid a strike. They simply lack the real-time information to act in time. Expanding AIS whale alerts to more ships in more high-risk waters gives them that chance.
What We're Asking For
This petition calls on the Assistant Administrator for Fisheries at NOAA Fisheries and the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard to expand the AIS whale-warning alert system — reaching more vessels across more high-risk waters, with priority given to areas where ship traffic and right whale presence most dangerously intersect. The tools exist. The whales cannot wait for slow rollouts while their numbers remain this low.
Every right whale lost is a blow to a species already on the edge. Every vessel warned in time is a life spared.
Sign the petition now to call on NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Coast Guard to expand real-time AIS whale-warning alerts to more ships in more high-risk areas — before another preventable death sets this species back further.
