AI Alerts Help Ships Steer Clear of Whales

On a sunny Tuesday afternoon in May, San Francisco Bay is busy. Container ships the size of skyscrapers deliver their wares to the Port of Oakland, tankers bear fuel, and ferries carry tourists to their hikes and commuters to their jobs at AI startups. Looking down at this marine traffic from Angel Island, located near the entrance to the bay, a group of excited scientists point to some sparkles on the surface of the water: Three gray whales are coming up for breath.

A collaboration of government agencies and scientists hopes to keep interspecies traffic running safely, thanks to an AI-based whale detection system that launched on 19 May. Developed by WhaleSpotter, based in Somerville, Mass., the system uses an AI model to detect whales in footage from thermal cameras looking down at the bay from Point Blunt on Angel Island. Detections are verified by a human to prevent false alarms. Then the system warns nearby ships so they can slow down or reroute. While trained humans can spot the spray that whales produce when they exhale, thermal cameras powered by AI do an even better job—and they can keep an eye out 24/7, even at night and on foggy afternoons.

For many whales, a trip to San Francisco is the end of their journey. A study published in April estimates an 18 percent mortality rate for gray whales that enter the bay. Seven have died here so far in 2026. In 2025, a record 21 gray whales died in and around the bay, and necropsies showed that 40 percent of those deaths were caused by ship strikes. “Last year was truly a crisis for gray whales,” says Douglas McCauley, director of the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The Bay Area is a new stop on gray whales’ route. They make the longest migration of any mammal, traveling between 15,000 and 20,000 kilometers round-trip from Alaska down to Baja California, Mexico, to breed. Historically, they made no stops along the way, gorging before their departure, then fasting on the journey.

Since 2018, however, over 100 gray whales have detoured into the San Francisco Bay on their way back north. Scientists aren’t sure why they are stopping, but they suspect it is because record-low sea ice levels driven by rapid climate change are to blame. The theory is that it’s decimating the algae that fertilize the Arctic food chain gray whales rely on. Instead of heading south with a full tank, the whales may not be able to eat enough to sustain their entire migration, so they come to San Francisco Bay for a snack on the way home. Some end up staying for over a month.

“Gray whales are trying to be a brave new whale in a weird world,” says McCauley. Standing next to WhaleSpotter’s thermal camera, looking down at the bay, he says this is “a front-row view to climate change.” From its mount on a Coast Guard tower on Angel Island’s Blunt Point, the camera captures images covering a cone of water extending out about 7 km.

A whale-spotting system in San…