Protecting whales from ship strikes

Protecting whales from ship strikes

Benjamin Hughes

In the summer of 2022, I was walking on the beach at Half Moon Bay in California, when I saw the strangest thing approaching on the waves. When it struck the shore and deflated, I knew: it was a dead whale.

But it wasn’t just any whale. It was Fran.

“I knew this whale, and I’m like, Ohhhhh. It just hit my heart, because Fran, at the time, she was the most well-known whale in our entire database,” said Ted Cheeseman, the creator of HappyWhale.com. That’s a database of whale sightings, which includes more than 850 pictures of Fran the humpback whale, identified by her tail markings.

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Nobody knows exactly how many whales are ship-strike victims every year, but many whale species on the endangered species list are threatened by cruise and container ship traffic. 

CBS News


“She had a big personality,” said Cheeseman. “She was playful around whale watch boats. You know, you’d hear on the radio, ‘Hey, Fran’s over here!’ ‘Oh cool, you know, let’s go hang out with Fran!'”

David Pogue

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David Pogue is a six-time Emmy winner for his stories on “CBS Sunday Morning,” where he’s been a correspondent since 2002. Pogue hosts the CBS News podcast “Unsung Science.” He’s also a New York Times bestselling author, a five-time TED speaker, and host of 20 NOVA science specials on PBS. For 13 years, he wrote a New York Times tech column every week – and for 10 years, a Scientific American column every month.

Source: cbsnews.com