Can Tech And Boaters Team Up To End Ship Strikes

A sunny day at the Miami International Boat Show turns into a masterclass on how boaters and whales can safely share the same ocean. We sit down with Virgil Zetterlind, co‑founder of the Whale Alert app, to unpack the real‑world tools, data, and collaborations that help prevent vessel strikes and keep crews safe. If you’ve ever wondered how marine tech, policy, and industry initiatives come together at the helm, this conversation brings the whole picture into focus.

We trace Whale Alert’s journey from early eNavigation experiments to a multilingual mobile platform that now supports boaters across the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Virgil explains why the 10‑knot threshold isn’t arbitrary, how seasonal management areas work for larger vessels, and what happened with the proposal to extend speed limits to smaller boats. Rather than dwelling on gridlock, we highlight momentum: the Whale and Vessel Safety (WAVES) Task Force, led by industry partners like Viking Yachts, is pushing voluntary measures, education, and innovation that meet mariners where they are.

The most exciting breakthroughs are at the chartplotter. PredictWind’s DataHub now ingests Whale Alert sightings and displays them as AIS virtual buoys on your existing navigation screen, turning wildlife awareness into a native part of your route planning. We also preview new NMEA standards for marine megafauna messages, paving the way for consistent, manufacturer‑agnostic integrations. And for anyone who wants to stay informed, SeaReportSave.org launches as a clean hub for best practices, live maps, and the latest tools that fit your style of boating.

Right whales remain critically vulnerable, with fewer than 400 individuals and roughly 80 breeding females, so every avoidable strike matters. The takeaway is refreshingly practical: slow down when advised, keep wildlife layers active, and treat information as essential safety gear. 

Subscribe, share this episode with a boater you care about, and leave a quick review to help more captains find tools that protect both people and whales.

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Transcript

Miami Boat Show Setup

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Miami. Global playground celebrated for its beautiful oceans and famous lifestyle. Behind all of the sunshine and success are people, products, and companies powering this magic city. This season, the Wards Way podcast brings you face to face with those who energize Miami's iconic way of life and bring us closer to the water.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Welcome to the Miami International Boat Show. This is Wards Way 2026.

SPEAKER_02 0:34

Welcome to the Wards Way

Meet Whale Alert’s Co‑Founder

SPEAKER_02 0:36

podcast. I'm here today with my good friend Virgil Zetterland with the co-founder of the Whale Alert app. Welcome. Thank you for being here. Welcome to the Miami Boat Show. What is the Whale Alert app? All right.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Well, first, thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Yeah, so Whale Alert is the oldest or one of the oldest citizen science apps to help promote uh both boater safety and marine mammal safety on the water. So we're trying to prevent ship strikes or vessel collisions with whales, which uh for large whales it's vessel collisions and typically entanglement in fishing gear, the two main human causes of injury and death.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

How did you found this company and what what got you interested in developing this app?

SPEAKER_00 1:19

So I started um in the marine software business in eNavigation. I had the first uh marine charts for Google Earth. If for those of us who can remember what Google Earth is.

SPEAKER_02 1:30

If you remember that, I can.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

That was going really well until a thing called the iPad came out. And then all of a sudden, interest in laptops on

Why Whale Alert Exists

SPEAKER_00 1:39

boats really pivoted to um the iPad, and of course the iPhone became much more capable shortly after that. So we pivoted into mobile app development again in eNavigation. It was a product called Earth and Sea Marine Charts. That's where we first got familiar with Miami Boat Show, doing the boat show circuit and exhibiting.

SPEAKER_02 1:58

And how long ago was that?

SPEAKER_00 2:00

So it was probably back in 2008.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Okay. And it's so funny. You talk about 2008 as if it's this really you know um timeline of back, you know, and archaic, and yet it was really just not that long ago. No, it was. Right.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Um, I think, but uh, you know, didn't have the marketing budget of some of the major established players, but had an opportunity to shift into conservation uh with a request from Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary up in the Boston area. They needed an app to let commercial ships coming into the port of Boston know when right whales were present so they could slow down. And you

From Google Earth To Mobile Charts

SPEAKER_00 2:39

know, what they really needed was essentially a marine navigation app that had some whale stuff in it.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

Okay. So I can imagine from 2008 to today, your your development and and and technology has really caught up. What does it look like today?

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Sure. So the first whale alert came out on iPhone in 2012.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Came out on Android in 2014. That's when we expanded to cover all large marine mammal species, to cover more than just the East Coast. So we do uh basically the app works anywhere in the world, has specific uh related information, particularly for the US, Canada, and Europe now. Uh, but we're growing that. Uh a few years after that, uh, we got funding to translate the app into French because to be for the Canadian government to recogn to recommend an app, it must be bilingual.

SPEAKER_02 3:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

And then more recently we got European funding to add approach guidelines to the rules around interacting with uh whales on the water for 13 European countries, as well as translate into Spanish. So Wow, okay. So now the app really you know covers a large uh percentage of the common languages on the water in both the US and North America and Central America.

SPEAKER_02 3:57

And I I'm sure that that's very helpful obviously in trying to really, if your goal is really to warn boaters and just make people aware. Um, number one, I love that you come at this from the boaters' perspective. You said you're a boater yourself, and and sharing this information at a boat show, I think it says it's not one or the other. We can all share the ocean, but let's just be smart about it and work together. So I think that that's a wonderful perspective. And you launched it here first in Miami?

SPEAKER_00 4:26

So the original whale

First Launch And Global Expansion

SPEAKER_00 4:27

alert launched in uh actually at the Port of Boston.

SPEAKER_02 4:31

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

Um we had already been exhibiting our prior products here. Uh this year we are launching a new website called CereportSave.org.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

And the purpose of that website is uh to have general information for boaters, again, around best practices with marine mammals. So that's gonna be information, an interactive map of where the whales have been sighted, uh, how to get tools, so apps like Whale Alert, there are, you know, the Whale and Vessel Safety Task Force, which is a marine industry-led task force, they're gonna be coming out with things. There's new technology like Whale Spotter, which is an autonomous camera that you can put on a boat that can detect whales. So Sea Report Save is meant to sort of just be a place where you can come learn more, see what tools might help you uh be a you know be a safer boater on the water.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

I feel as though um boaters are extraordinarily wonderful environmentalists because everybody knows that if you don't protect the ocean, you won't have something to boat in. Have you have you felt that? Have you been received well? Have boaters been coming up to you and do you feel that there's a nice synergy going?

SPEAKER_00 5:45

Yes, you know, uh I'd say I think you know, boaters really do love the water. Uh I'd say we tend to also have a pretty strong independence streak. And so once in a while we get a little early pushback. And um, you know, our organization, we're not an advocacy organization. Uh we don't make policy recommendations. We're just really trying to be an informational tool that not only helps the whales stay safe, but you know, if you're a small boater and you're going pretty fast and you hit a whale, that's uh, you know, there have been documented large you know dollar and injury injury losses off of Florida and Georgia.

SPEAKER_02 6:24

And it's a safety issue as well. I mean, if you if you were to hit a a piling or or or wood in the water, that would be dangerous too, and we would want to know where those things are as well. So and and it's good that you talked about that you you're a tool and and something that that helps everybody. You want to help

New Site: SeaReportSave.org

SPEAKER_02 6:40

the whales and you also want to educate the voters. However, there have been some some recent legislative activities, and and I'm not asking you to form an opinion on them, but I I do think it's important because there tends to be sometimes misinformation, and I'd like for for you to be able to put that information out there. What was the ruling? How did it go, and and where we are with it today?

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Sure. So let's start with what is in place and has been in place for a while, and that's uh what are called seasonal management areas. They only apply to vessels over 65 feet.

SPEAKER_02 7:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

It's a 10 knot speed limit. They go out from the coast about 20 to 25 miles, depending where exactly. They're date-based based on historic data around when the right whales are migrating. And in why 10 knots is there, they did did a lot of study on ship strike, and they found that there was a 90% reduction in whale death when the strike hit at 10 knots or less. So that's that number's not sort of pulled out of a hat. It's based on a lot of the best knowledge we have about you know what speed does hitting a whale hopefully injure versus kill.

SPEAKER_02 7:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

Again, this was oriented at large vessels primarily, but um there is evidence that particularly for smaller whales and right whale calves, which are critically endangered, uh, that you know, impacts from smaller vessels will have similar effects. So there was a proposed rule to extend that uh down to I think 35 feet. Obviously, got a lot of pushback from the industry. And um, you know, if you own a planing vessel, which is a large majority of the smaller fleet, they're not designed really to operate on the open ocean at 10

Boater Reception And Safety Framing

SPEAKER_00 8:27

knots. Sure. Again, um that rule went through uh notice and comment, received a lot of comments as you would expect. Um timing was at the end of the Biden administration. They the administration did not feel like they had time to address the comments, so they did not publish the rule. Um from there, uh again, I would have to ask someone more on the legislative insider. Are we paused or is it canceled? I don't know. Right. Uh, but no rule was issued. I will say activity around that rule did, you know, it was out of that that the WAVES task force was formed. The industry really stood up and said, let's be proactive. Uh there's a lot we can do voluntarily, and if we do that right, maybe we can, you know.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

And that's exactly where I was gonna go with this. Did you see some momentum? What was that called? The whe the whale.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

The Waves Task Force, sir. It's whale and vessel safety task force. It's uh Viking Yachts was the the lead founder, but they've brought in a lot of industry. And again, it's really trying to build the technology and practice around how can we share information, use new technology, not only for whales and but also again, vessel safety, like you said, marine debris. Sure. Uh from the boat side hitting any big object in the water is a problem. So how do we, you know, how do we help reduce that risk?

SPEAKER_02 9:53

And how many not that one strike is too many? I I you know agree. Nobody, nobody is ever gonna

Speed Rules And The 10‑Knot Science

SPEAKER_02 10:00

want to say, well, one's okay or ten's okay, but how many strikes are we talking about that occur, let's say, in a a one-year, I don't know how often they're they're measured in a one year or a three year or a five year? What does that look like?

SPEAKER_00 10:11

So, you know, in terms of the right whale, just the perspective is they have less than 400 individuals, about 80 breeding females. So there, even one strike is too many, is too many. And same entanglement and fishing gear. Uh they had what was called an unusual mortality event, is when they had a a big swing, upswing in mortality. That occurred starting about four years ago, where I think they lost 25 in and do you know what caused that or what it was, or just a shift in migration, or so there was a big shift in migration further north in the summer into their feeding ground, so into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where there was there is a lot of vertical line fishing as well as a lot of shipping traffic. And it was sort of a mix of fishing entanglement and ship strike. That was compounded by they lost a few calves here in the south from ship strike, so you know, direct impact on replacement future replacement. Um again, and some of the rulemaking came, you know, because that's under the Endangered Species Act, there are legal requirements in terms of them having to look at the regulations again. Um, there's this idea of uh sort of what they call an allowable take, or like how many can you lose from accidental human interaction? Uh of course lawsuits were involved.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

Um but again, those I you know, when when you get to that something like that, and again, I I recognize that's not your position or your place, but I I always find I I have spent some time in in in the legislative world, and by the time you get to lawsuits, now people are j you're just wasting money and time and energy that could have gone into both saving, protecting the whales, and also protecting voters' rights. And and I love that this WAVE um was it WAVE task force was put together because and I and I hope that uh it continues because I think that that's something the best solutions

Proposed Small‑Vessel Rule Status

SPEAKER_02 12:08

are gonna come when everybody comes to the table. And I know that sounds very cliche and and just such a perfect world, but it really is how we solve problems when we all sit down and we say our our collective goal is to accomplish this with a tool such as yourself, and and especially with you coming to boat shows, you're not coming to boat shows and saying voters are bad and this is terrible, it's just let us help boaters find the way. I can promise you I I don't think a single voter would want to have a whale strike or would in any way want to endanger um you know the the future of the species, but you if they don't know, they don't know. What about some of the electronics companies? Have you have you found a way to be integrated into some of their okay?

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Yeah, so we're uh for so PredictWind is a major player in offshore weather and information. They have their data hub product. So their data hub uh basically can communicate with our server. So if you have a predictwind data hub installed, you can go into the settings. There's a whale, um basically the whale alert page, you can turn on the layer. And the neat thing with their system is it, of course, it connects to the internet via whatever, it adapts to your internet connections, whether you're Imerset or Starlink or Cell, and then it connects your NEMA 183 or 2000 onboard network. So when whale sightings are received by the data hub, it actually converts them into AIS virtual warning buoys and puts them on your chart plotter.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

Wow, that's very interesting. And see that that's the ingenuity.

WAVES Task Force And Industry Action

SPEAKER_02 13:40

And I and I think that that's something that um do do boaters voluntarily have to how how can they get involved and how how can they get that if they want it? I'm a boater, I want that software, I want that ability.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

So if you have a predict-win data hub, you just need to make sure you've got the latest software update and it's free. It's a free, basically there's no charge to add that capability. Uh NMEA, so National Marine Electronics Association, they're working on a new standard for basically animal sighting. So a new one. I was gonna say, so we can broaden it. Yeah, so it's a new NEMA data sentence for the the wonky people listening. Um, or PGN, I think they're called.

SPEAKER_02 14:18

We have a lot of wonky people. That's okay. Sorry, he didn't mean it offensive. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

Well, I'm one of those, so me too. That's okay. So yeah, so there's gonna be a new NEMA 2000, I think possibly even a 183 message for uh marine megafauna. Um so again, as more systems like Whale Alert, uh, they're also I think working on a cloud-based um way that basically what you could say connected marine electronics, users would have the option to say, I want to connect to the Whale Alert service over the cloud. They would subscribe. Now we can use this whale sighting message that NEMA is standardized so manufacturers can all implement once instead of implementing lots of different ways to do it.

SPEAKER_02 15:00

So, how do how does the average boater get involved? They you're at the Miami Boat Show, I'm sure you're talking to hundreds of people. Um, how can they get involved? Maybe they're not a boater, but but how can they get involved? Can they join this task force?

SPEAKER_00 15:13

Is there a So the task force is really for industry. I'd say if you can go to cereportsave.org, we've got a newsletter sign up. We're really gonna use that again as a clearinghouse of as these new tools are developed and available where people can, you know, get news, get links so they can buy you know get what's fits for the type of boating they do. Download the whale alert app and the Apple or Google Play Store app stores, it's

Right Whale Numbers And Risks

SPEAKER_00 15:38

free. Uh same thing in the app. Uh, you know, we'll push a little news through the app as well as these announcements get made. And that the app, whether you're on the water or not, again, you can pull it up and just see like, you know, where are the whales right now. You know, right now, if you look even the last week, we've got you know tens of sightings of right whales and their calves off of northern Florida and southeast Georgia. So it's you know just fun to see that you know those whales they are out. You know, people say, Well, I've never seen them.

SPEAKER_02 16:07

Well, they they are doesn't mean they're not there, absolutely. Well, it has been such a pleasure speaking with you, and I I'm uh happy that we had an opportunity and we can share this information, and I encourage people to get involved. And I really like it to me, it's such a wonderful story. There are always um over the years it seems like there's a you know conservation against uh against you know development, let's say, or conservation against boating. Or this is coming together, work together. In the end, no boater wants to to hurt an animal in the water, and and the and the animals and species need to be protected. One ocean, let's work together. That's right. Thank you for your time. Thank you for being a part of the Wards Way, and I'm I'm glad you're having a successful Miami show. Well, thank you. Thank you for being here. Thanks for joining us. Make sure you subscribe to the Wards Way podcast. We're just getting started.