Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

WhaleSpotter deploys AI thermal-sensor network to detect whales and prevent ship strikes

WhaleSpotter, a company spun out of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 2024, has deployed a real-time whale detection system in San Francisco Bay using thermal cameras and a neural network trained on hundreds of thousands of images. The system detects gray whales by heat signature up to 4 nautical miles away, transmits video clips to human validators within ~30 seconds, and alerts ship captains with 99% accuracy. Over 70 units are now deployed across vessels, ports, and offshore-energy operations, with Matson as the first commercial container carrier adopter.