Forscher berichten, dass sich der weltweite Schiffsverkehr mit etwa 92 % der Verbreitungsgebiete der Blau-, Finn-, Buckel- und Pottwalarten überschneidet

Consumers have voted with their dollars. We’d rather have stuff shipped across oceans because it makes it cheaper than our grandkids having whales in the ocean.

Abstract:

*After the near-complete cessation of commercial whaling, ship collisions have emerged as a primary threat to large whales, but knowledge of collision risk is lacking across most of the world’s oceans. We compiled a dataset of 435,000 whale locations to generate global distribution models for four globally ranging species. We then combined >35 billion positions from 176,000 ships to produce a global estimate of whale-ship collision risk. Shipping occurs across 92% of whale ranges, and <7% of risk hotspots contain management strategies to reduce collisions. Full coverage of hotspots could be achieved by expanding management over only 2.6% of the ocean’s surface. These inferences support the continued recovery of large whales against the backdrop of a rapidly growing shipping industry.*