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Angel Island marks one end in a triangle of heightened whale activity in San Francisco Bay.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kelly Liu\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
On a remote corner of Angel Island, the waters of San Francisco Bay lap against a collection of whale bones littering the white sand. Marine scientists have towed the mammoth bodies of\u00a0dead gray whales<\/a> across the bay to this isolated beach many times in recent years to investigate the mysterious spike in fatalities<\/a>.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, state scientists and a coalition of regional partners gathered on a peak of Angel Island overlooking the graveyard beach. But their eyes scanned past the island to the gleaming bay, where blows from gray whales shot up sporadically between passing cargo ships, fishing vessels and sailboats.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The group wasn\u2019t there to mourn the sea giants but rather to debut a new way to keep them safe: artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can come together as a community and do something today, which is to ensure that more of the whales that come into the bay make it back out and are not struck and killed by ships,\u201d Douglas McCauley, the director of UC Santa Barbara\u2019s Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory, said during Tuesday\u2019s launch of the new monitoring system on Angel Island.<\/p>\n FILE: Experts from the Marine Mammal Center and California Academy of Sciences performed a necropsy on a dead whale at Angel Island State Park on March 12, 2019.<\/p>\n S.F Chronicle\/Getty Images<\/p>\n The new system uses AI to detect gray whales swimming in the bay and then quickly alerts boat captains so they can slow down and change course. The detection\u00a0network also includes a\u00a0thermal camera recently installed at the U.S. Coast Guard communication site on Angel Island and a second fastened aboard a San Francisco Bay Ferry passenger boat. The ferry\u2019s camera turned on for the route between\u00a0Vallejo and San Francisco this week.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The system tracks whales by their heat signatures and exhaled breath using AI-powered technology from\u00a0WhaleSpotter, a global company that emerged from a decade of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute research. Experts from Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory and the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito collaborated with WhaleSpotter and the U.S. Coast Guard\u2019s vessel traffic service to tailor the project for San Francisco Bay.<\/p>\n Now, trained marine mammal specialists working around the clock for WhaleSpotter verify the AI detections of whales before alerts go out over radio to vessels and to the public website Whale Safe<\/a>.\u00a0While the new monitoring does not cover the entire San Francisco Bay, the first camera on Angel Island\u2019s Point Blunt faces a triangular hotspot of whale activity between Alcatraz and Treasure Island. Over the next two years, the coalition hopes to expand to include more cameras on additional ferries, the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.\u00a0<\/p>\n Before this improved monitoring technology, vessels were constantly reporting whales to one another via the radio and voluntarily reducing\u00a0their speeds per the Blue Whales and Blue Skies program<\/a>, but it hasn\u2019t been enough to prevent strikes.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The project team celebrates the launch of the new AI technology to detect whales by cutting a ribbon on Angel Island on May 19, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n Anna FitzGerald Guth A view of the thermal camera recently installed on Angel Island on May 19, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n Anna FitzGerald Guth Kathi George of the Marine Mammal Center speaks to her colleagues on Angel Island on May 19, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n Anna FitzGerald Guth<\/p>\n \u201cThis technology is now working 24\/7,\u201d Kathi George, the director of cetacean conservation biology at the Marine Mammal Center, said on Angel Island on Tuesday. \u201cIt gives us the ability to help locate whales and share the information for situational awareness. Captains are the folks that know best how to operate their vessels to avoid whales, so giving them the information is a true win-win for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The new effort emerged amid dire conditions for gray whales. Out of the 26 whales that died in local waters<\/a> last year, 21 were gray whales \u2014 the highest number of regional fatalities for the species in 25 years.\u00a0This year, 10 gray whales have died in the greater Bay Area, according to the Marine Mammal Center<\/a>. And a study published<\/a> in April found that at least 18% of the gray whales spotted in the bay from 2018 to 2025 died. Vessels killed at least 40% of them, and many others starved.<\/p>\n FILE: A whale vertebra sits on the shores of San Francisco Bay on April 23, 2019.<\/p>\n Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images<\/p>\n The Eastern North Pacific population of gray whales, which migrates about 12,000 miles each year between Mexico and the Arctic, has dramatically declined. According to McCauley, this population of grays has dropped by about 50% in the past decade down to just about 13,000 whales in 2025<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Boat strikes are only one part of the picture. The grays are likely struggling to find enough food<\/a> in the warming Arctic during the summer.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cClimate change is causing sea ice to shrink and also disrupting and warming the Arctic, throwing a monkey wrench into how the Arctic works,\u201d McCauley said. \u201cWhat that means is there\u2019s less of that food that has been there dependably for millennia for the gray whales, so they\u2019re now leaving this migration with less than a full tank and undertaking that same journey. They\u2019re running out of energy or fuel on the way back up.\u201d<\/p>\n Stay informed, and entertained.<\/p>\n By signing up, you agree to our Terms Of Use<\/a> and acknowledge that your information will be used as described in our Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cGray whales are trying to be brave, new, weird whales in a weird, new world.\u201d<\/p>\n The working hypothesis among local scientists is that the gray whales are turning into the bay to feed, though more research is needed. \u201cThe whales are definitely feeding here,\u201d the Marine Mammal Center\u2019s George said. \u201cHow much food is in here, and the quality and nutrition of that food are still questions that we have to answer.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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