Expert Panel on Ship Strikes

Ellen's research addresses population and community ecology of threatened and endangered species incorporating local conservation efforts and regional scale coastal and marine management science. Her emphasis is on the evolution of consistent standards of field methods and monitoring techniques, and the creation of educational materials to be applied to community-based conservation planning. Dr. Hines also has extensive (since 1990) experience in GIS and remote sensing for marine and coastal spatial planning.  She is committed to collaborating internationally with in-country scientists to solve conservation problems threatening marine mammals. Dr. Hines has conducted marine mammal research in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Japan, Belize, Peru, Chile, Oman, Canada, and the U.S. since 1997. Internationally, Dr. Hines is an ASEAN research Fulbright Fellow.  She has served on the CMS Scientific Council’s Aquatic Mammals Working Group since 2013, and as an invited expert to the Sirenian Specialist Group of the IUCN SSC since 2005.  She is a member of the IUCN Marine Mammal Protected Area Task Force and the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas. In 2013, she co-led the Third Southeast Asian Marine Mammal Symposium in Malaysia, and led the publication of a report on this workshop published by the UNEP/CMS Secretariat.  Dr. Hines has been a member of the Society for Marine Mammalogy since 1994, and is currently a member of the Ethics Committee (since 2016). In California, Dr. Hines works closely with the NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries and local scientists around San Francisco Bay to model habitat use and human threats to marine mammals and seabirds.  She is a research advisor on the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council.  With her students, she works to create risk assessments for anthropogenic threats such as shipping collisions, marine megafaunal bycatch and the effects of sea level rise on pinnipeds, sea otters, and birds in coastal estuaries. In 2017, Dr. Hines co-created the Bycatch Risk Assessment (ByRA) toolkit with funding from NOAA’s Office of International Affairs and the Monterey Aquarium Seafood Watch.  The ByRA toolkit is a spatially and temporally explicit tool for the assessment of marine megafaunal bycatch risk for fisheries management (especially under the U.S. MMPA restrictions) and conservation planning.  With local scientists, she has conducted bycatch risk assessments in Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Oman, and Peru.  She is currently co-leading a Lenfest Oceans project with Chilean fisheries agencies and scientists to use the ByRA toolkit for marine mammal bycatch analysis in 19 fisheries along the coast of Chile.  Dr. Hines has led ByRA training workshops in Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Colombia, Peru, Chile, and India.

Then she led the first scientific report of ship strikes in the Canary Islands, linking the increase of mortality of sperm whales with the starting of the operation of the fast ferries: Aguilar de Soto et al (2000). Evidence of disturbance of protected cetacean populations in the Canary Islands. SC/53/WW1. She designed and performed the study of her PhD student reported in Fais et al. (2016) Abundance and distribution of sperm whales in the Canary Islands: can sperm whales in the archipelago sustain the current level of ship-strike mortalities?. PLOS ONE 11(5): e0155199. Then she led in 2015 the part of ship strikes prevention in a project funded by the Spanish Government via Fundación Biodiversidad (Canarias con la Mar). Here she organised and facilitated meetings of a working group on ship strike prevention including the main fast ferry companies, the academia, and the Spanish and Canary Islands governments. The results were sent to IWC and IWC reported to IMO. IMO produced a circular underlying the issue of ship strikes in five areas of the world, including the Canary Islands (IMO MEPC 69/10/3 2016). Fruit of this working group was a later agreement between ULL and the company Fred Olsen where Dr. Aguilar provided training on ship strike prevention to some 100 bridge crew members of the ferries, Fred Olsen changed a ferry route to reduce passing time crossing a SAC and incorporated an app to record shightings and communicate them among the ferries of the company. Also, a pilot test of the performance of thermal detection of whales from the fast ferries was performed. Now Dr. Aguilar leads a research project on ship strike prevention in the Canary Islands funded by the Spanish Government via Fundación Biodiversidad (LIFE INTEMARES) (on-going). In New Zealand she collaborated with Dr. Constantine in a study tagging Bryde’s whales and presenting the results to a multi-stakeholder working group. This group achieved a reduction of speed to 10 knots in the Hauraki Gulf for large ships: Constantine et al (2015) Mitigation of vessel-strike mortality of endangered Bryde´s whales in the Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand. Biol Conserv.;186:1 49–157. 

Bio coming soon

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... representing the organization in international fora where decisions are made relevant to the conservation of cetaceans such as the International Whaling Commission, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife Protocol, and International Maritime Organization.

He is the Africa Co-ordinator of the IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group and the Scientific Co-ordinator of the Arabian Sea Whale Network. He has worked with cetaceans, including strandings and bycatches, in various countries ranging from Oman and the United Arab Emirates, to Angola, Madagascar and Gabon. Most recently Tim has worked to identify and mitigate gillnet bycatches of Critically Endangered Atlantic humpback dolphins in Congo. This has included helping to implement a participatory programme to quantify and map artisanal fishing behaviour across most of the Congolese coast. The work yielded high resolution data for relatively low cost, and fills a frequently cited gap for the management of small fisheries. Tim currently lives in Kenya but continues efforts to further the work of various projects in Oman and Central and East Africa.

Master Mariner and Technical Advisor leading Work Package 2 for enhancing Seafarer Navigation awareness (Ocean Project).

Antonio is DVM, PhD, Veterinary Pathologist Specialist (ECVP Diplomate), ECZM Diplomate (Wildlife Population Health) and European Forensic Veterinary Pathology (ECVP_EFVP) and currently Vet Path Full Professor at Vet School and Director at www.iusa.eu at www.ulpgc.es. Antonio leads the Atlantic Centre for Cetacean Research (IUSA-OIE col Centre of Marine Mammal Health), a multidisciplinary Cetacean Health and Welfare team with specialized labs as well as a Stranding Task Force Group based in the Canary Islands, involved in investigating cetacean mortalities (inc. forensic studies) at regional, national, and international level. The main conservation achievement was a sonar ban (since 2004), as well as mitigation measures of other anthropic activities in Canary Islands. Also involved in different scientific national and international advisory committees, and a system to learn and teach: "Each1Teach1".

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To reduce the risk of fatal shipstrikes on endangered whales he works with the IMO, local and federal agencies, shipping industry and the local community to re-route shipping and reduce vessel speeds through innovative voluntary and incentive based approaches.

Working with passenger shipping across the globe, Sally has led a multitude of projects and monitoring work in known ship strikes risk areas. Sally’s extensive experience bridging the gap between industry and research gives her and ORCA a credibility with industry that has proven significant in achieving positive responses to ship strikes mitigation projects ORCA have supported.

Her team investigates cetacean ecology in close partnership with local communities, conducting field studies, responding to human impacts, publishing research findings, and informing decision-makers. Their collaborative research addresses questions from resource managers, the public, conservationists, and industry, all working to support healthy ocean ecosystems, with a primary emphasis on reducing the risk of vessel strikes and entanglements to whales. Kathi co-leads Whale Safe San Francisco, a technology-based mapping and analysis tool that displays near real-time whale and ship data, with the goal of helping to prevent fatal ship collisions with whales. She has spoken at the National Harbor Safety Committee conference and serves in the Conservation seat for the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council. Previously, she was a member of the Greater Farallones and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries Advisory Council Joint Ship Strike Working Group and currently serves on the San Francisco Harbor Safety Committee where she chairs a work group charged with reducing the risk of vessel strikes on whales while maintaining navigational safety. Kathi also participates in the California Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group and is a Level 3 Co-Investigator with NOAA's Large Whale Entanglement Response Program. She co-founded California Whale Rescue, a nonprofit dedicated to entangled whale response and prevention.

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Russell regularly attends meetings of the IMO and contributed to the development of the 2009 IMO guidance on reducing ship strikes with cetaceans. He has used his maths degree to develop analytical skills including statistics, spatial modelling and ship strike risk analysis. This has included surveys for whales and analysis of shipping density from AIS in a number of areas.

The search and rescue of damaged vessels relies on the national system of notification of the position of vessels transiting the entire national maritime area. The Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS), which operates with INMARSAT geostationary satellites and the international COSPAS-SARSAT satellite system, receives alarm signals from ships and generates alert information to the Coast Guard Operations Command post.  The Coast Guard Command manages the database of the incidents that are reported by these vessels, many of which request support. They are also in charge of maritime traffic on a national level. Lisbeth is committed to assisting with this information and working together as required. 

Milton holds extensive experience in rescue and necropsy of large whales and dolphins along the coast of Brazil including mortality for Ship Strike. He has been a member of the Brazilian Strandings Network since 2000 and a member of Brazilian Delegation in Scientific Committee of IWC since 2007. He coordinates the research cruises of humpback whales in the Abrolhos Bank and an initiative with Humpback Whale Institute and ships companies to reduce the risk of ship strikes on whales in Abrolhos Bank.

He is exploring the use of risk assessments to identify areas of high vessel strike risk not only from large commercial vessels, but also integrating the risk contribution from smaller, recreational vessels. With this work Raphael has had the opportunity to work closely with industry partners such as the Port of Brisbane, which has provided valuable insights into the challenges and potential solutions associated with mitigating vessel strikes.

...involving better communication with stakeholders (e.g., shipping companies, scientists, maritime institutions) and increased reporting of events via the global ship strikes database. Recently, Simone has been involved in the effort by France, Italy, Monaco and Spain to develop and support the process for the designation of a PSSA by the IMO at a scale that includes the North-West Mediterranean Sea, Slope and Canyon IMMA, plus the Eastern portion of the Pelagos Sanctuary and the Spanish corridor, to take into account whale population movements and distribution. The proposal has been accepted by the IMO in June 2023 and I am contributing to the development of ship strike mitigation tools, which will be proposed as part of Associated Protective Measures within the PSSA.

For the last 10 years Stephen has been pursuing diagnostic and research interests in stranded marine mammals throughout the northeastern Pacific region.  More recently his work has taken him to the arctic and New Zealand.

As head of the Stranding Program in Chile, Mauricio deals with reports of ship strikes with cetaceans, especially in areas where marine traffic is intense (commercial routes, aquaculture and fishing vessels), and  areas where the congregation of large whales may eventually overlap.

Auriane's aim is to reduce the impact of human activities on these species, which are essential to the ecosystems. After focusing on the impact of military activities and offshore wind farms within the Pelagis Observatory, she is now focusing on ship strikes. In 2023, Auriane joined the Share the Ocean scientific consortium, which aims to reduce the risk of collisions with marine megafauna using ocean racing as a demonstrator. They have developed a model to estimate the number of encounters along the routes taken by offshore racing boats, taking into account the characteristics of the whales (density estimated from the species distribution models, size, swimming speed and dive time) and the characteristics of the vessels (size and speed). Their model also allows assessment of the relevance of establishing exclusion zones along the routes taken by comparing the estimated number of encounters with and without exclusion zones. The ultimate goal is to apply the encounter model to shipping in order to estimate the number of cetacean encounters on a more global scale. Auriane's involvement within Share the Ocean allows her to be directly involved in ocean racing and to take practical action, such as setting up exclusion zones during the major transatlantic and round-the-world races, and raising awareness among sailors and race organisers. Auriane also contributes her expertise to the inter-regional Atlantic Whale Deal project, which aims to reduce collisions in the Atlantic Ocean, and to the International Whaling Commission Ship Strikes Expert Panel. 

Mason has 43 years' experience working with humpback, fin, right, minke, sei, blue, and medium and dolphin at Gulf of Maine and Baja including on ship strike.

The continuation of Andy’s PhD includes working with industry, government partners and the World Shipping Council to explore ship strike mitigation solutions and integrating efforts within a Conservation Management Plan proposed by the International Whaling Commission. 

Before joining the World Shipping Council, Bryan served as the Associate Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Transportation and Air Quality. Prior to that, Bryan served as the Marine Program Director in EPA's Office of International Environmental Policy where he worked as the lead U.S. negotiator for a number of environmental-oriented international treaties. He has chaired several negotiating efforts undertaken at the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and has received numerous awards for his role in forging agreement on a series of controversial regulatory issues. He holds degrees from the State University of New York, Syracuse University, and Harvard University.