How AI Can Help Protect Whales From a Wind Farm Boom
Artificial intelligence is being used to detect endangered right whales as climate change drives them into the path of clean energy projects.
A North Atlantic right whale mother and calf off the coast of c.
Source: Georgia Department of Natural Resources/NOAA/AP
The blustery waters off Massachusetts are prime real estate for wind farms key to meeting US climate targets. That area of the ocean is also a climate refuge for an iconic marine mammal teetering on the brink of extinction, the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale. As an offshore wind farm boom gets underway along the East Coast, new artificial intelligence and computer vision technology could help protect the whales from a jump in ship traffic.
Fatal collisions have decimated the right whale population in recent years as climate change alters their migration patterns. Scientists estimate that only about 340 individuals survive, with fewer than 100 breeding females left. That has led the federal government to impose extensive requirements on developers to ensure wind projects don’t contribute to the whales’ demise.