Cargo ships are killing blue whales but the problem is 'uniquely resolvable,' marine biologist says

• The Guardian reported that big cargo ships are hurting and killing whales off a Sri Lanka coast.
• Scientists suggest the ships slightly alter their shipping routes to protect the blue whales.

If cargo ships change their shipping routes, they can avoid killing and injuring masses of blue whales.

The Guardian reported on Monday that scientists are calling for big cargo ships to reroute in an effort to protect endangered blue whales that live off southern Sri Lanka. According to marine biologist Asha de Vos, who launched a study on the region's whale population starting in 2008, the Sri Lankan blue whale population stay in the area all year round, overlapping with a major shipping route that connects East Asia to the Suez Canal.

"The problem for these whales is that they live in a giant obstacle course that we have created," de Vos told The Guardian.

But the solution to keeping blue whales from being injured by massive cargo ships is "uniquely resolvable," de Vos said — the ships can simply adjust their route.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare wrote in a letter that "risk could be reduced by 95%" if shipping routes were adjusted 15 nautical miles more south than its current route.

While the Sri Lankan government previously refused to approve the change, citing economic concerns, de Vos said the economic impacts of shifting the shipping route would be minimal because the majority of ships don't stop in Sri Lanka, but just transport goods through the area.

The push to protect whales from cargo ships has been going on for over a decade. In 2012, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organization wrote that shipping lanes off the California coast will be adjusted to "protect endangered whales from ship strikes" after four blue whales were killed in the Santa Barbara channel in 2007. Five more whales were killed by ships three years later.

Blue whales are the largest animal to have ever lived, but their numbers are dwindling as an endangered species. Given that the Sri Lankan population does not migrate, de Vos emphasized the increased urgency of protecting their population to avoid all of them dying out.

"They're so different to blue whales anywhere else in the world," de Vos said. "It's not just that it could be a separate subspecies, it has a different dialect, different feeding habits, different behaviours. We could start losing a culture of whales."