The Greek-American news site Greek Reporter recently published an in-depth article on SAvE Whales, the innovative system developed in Greece to protect sperm whales from ship collisions in the Kythira Strait.
The article highlights ongoing efforts to protect sperm whales and the next steps to mitigate the risks threatening these iconic marine mammals.
The scientific teams responsible for the development of SAvE Whales are collecting data to improve the system, which is expected to become fully operational by 2028.
As Ioli Christopoulou pointed out, some of the key challenges for the full implementation of the system include the selection of the location to be applied, durability for year-round operation through varied conditions energy consumption and data transmission systems.
The article by journalist Filio Kotrafouri was published on January 31, 2025, and is available in English here.
A population of sperm whales was discovered in the Hellenic Trench by the Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute in 1998. Vessel strikes were soon identified by them as the main threat for the survival of this endangered population. SAvE Whales, which stands for “System for the Avoidance of ship-strikes with Endangered Whales”, was first developed in a pilot project between 2019 and 2021 by Pelagos and FORTH, fully funded by OceanCare. It offers a pioneering technology, serving as a complementary response measure to the threat of vessel strikes. A Memorandum of Understanding, singed in June 2024, by the Greek Ministry of Environment and Energy, the Natural Environment and Climate Change Agency, OceanCare and Τhe Green Tank provides for the scaling up and the full implementation of the system in the Kythira Strait by 2028.