An international group of researchers has published a new study that maps areas of whale activity with areas of high shipping activity in order to find the places with the highest risk of whale strikes, a leading cause of whale mortality (alongside fishing). The upshot, according to the research team, is that it should be possible to reduce the number of strikes by regulating marine traffic on just 2.6 percent of the ocean’s surface – though that 2.6 percent happens to be in areas that are very important to shipping. 

Shipping is a global phenomenon, and the merchant fleet is larger and more active now than at any point in history. The study found that marine traffic overlaps 92 percent of the habitat for blue, humpback, fin and sperm whales, the globe-spanning species covered by the study. Hotspots of ship strike risk were identified in every ocean region, except for the Southern Ocean, where there is little commercial interest for shipping. As might be expected, the risk tends to be concentrated on the coastal margins, where whales gather to seek feeding or breeding grounds and ships congregate to call at ports. 

Clear high risk zones include the southwest coast of India; the southern tip of Africa; the southern coast of Brazil; the Strait of Gibraltar; and the…