side off to the left.

- [Whale Watcher] I think we might have just seen some whale blows in the camera.

- Not sure.

- There's a blow, yeah!

- [Ross] Oh yeah, wow, we can see it for sure!

That's a busy scene too.

There he goes, there he got it.

- Very nice!

- So we just detected blow in the camera from the whales that are right out here in front of the boat.

So it's very exciting stuff.

- Ross Eaten and a whole host of smart engineers and scientists have been working on Awarion, which is an autonomous lookout system.

It's based on AI and machine learning, and it's a computer vision program that is able to detect whales at a distance.

We're actually here to collect data.

We need to have a lot of data of imagery of whales.

We wanna see whales at a distance really far away when we just spot them maybe as the back is surfacing and breaking the water.

(wind whooshing) (waves crashing) We met with Vineyard Wind.

They told us that they really needed to be able to protect marine life when they're out and they're doing their work on offshore wind.

And we said that we had a system that we were interested in performance testing and we came together.

What's cool about that is we use, the Awarion system is based on Flirs cameras.

They're both electric, optical and thermal.

(whale spouting) So because of the whale's fluid is actually warmer than the surface temperature of the water, it really lights up in a thermal camera, so we can detect that blow.

- We take all that data, it goes down to a computer.

The computer can then go train, understand how to pick these interesting things out of the data that it's seeing.

Here's where your boat is, here's where this thing that was detected is, you know, whether it's a whale, a boat, this is the path that it's taking.

Those kinds of things so that a person looking at that can understand what the situation is around the vessel, can react appropriately.

Whether it's to avoid a collision with a boat or whether it's to slow down to let a whale pass.

We are definitely still in the process of training the system.

We know that the system works, but we want to continue pushing the boundaries of where it works.

So we wanna make it, you know, detect whales a little bit further away.

- We came across Awarion because we knew that we were gonna need to have some monitoring at night.

We don't start piling at night If it is to go into night or if we need to transit at night, having the ability to use AI software to help our observers see what might be ahead of us is really important.

So it might alert them and say, "Hey, we see this whale blow ahead by a certain number of feet," and they can review it really quickly.

It's really appealing to us, and I think where we'd like to bring it is to help us to be able to do nighttime pile driving, which is gonna be essential to efficiently, you know, install these projects.

- A system that can reliably detect whales is gonna be useful for survey vessels, vessels that are doing any kind of construction offshore, shipping vessels.

I think what it really becomes is this kind of trade off of, well, the system can make detections out to this range.

So if I can make detections out to that range, then you need to drive a little bit slower because that way you'll have enough time to make a reaction.

- Look at how giant they are!

- On the boat!

- [Whale Watcher] Oh, it's so exciting.

- [Guide] Coming up right now is the mother of this calf.

This is a humpback whale by the name of A-Plus.

Her calf's around nine months old now.

- There's just something about an animal that can really encompass.

They are the poster child for this environment and they really are sort of an animal that everyone can look to familiarize themselves with or are familiar with, but more importantly, they represent this area ecologically.

They're important to the waters here.

It's been home to them for a millennia and we love bringing people out to see 'em.

I worry about our whales out here every day I'm out here.

I often kid with our passengers is why I'm on the largest of allowable dosage of high blood pressure medication because we worry about these whales out here.

There's not much we can do for them, but we can try and role model good boating behavior, and that's the one thing we can really try and do.

It's really not cool.

It's okay to come out here.

Anyone can come out and watch whales, but what you shouldn't be doing is moving a boat around while there are whales there.

The people on that boat have no idea where those whales are gonna come up next.

And this is why about 30% of our named humpback whales have scars that are attributable to collisions with small boats.

- Based on the experts that I've spoken with and some of the data that I've looked at, it looks like the shipping industry has increased in terms of the number of ships that are out there throughout the world.

It appears as though the majority of deaths of whales are caused by vessel strikes.

So that's where we'd like to put our efforts.

Can we detect those whales as quickly as possible, notify human beings and captains of ships so they can get out of the way and leave the whales alone?

(wind whooshing) (wind whooshing) It's devastating when you see a massive, magnificent creature lying dead on on a shore somewhere.

It affects everybody.

I think historically we haven't been very kind to the whales.

When you think about the history of whaling and all sorts of tremendous negative aspects.

I don't know what it is, but I think many, many people share this view that we have to protect and care for them.

(whale spouting) - As Native peoples or Indigenous peoples, we've been the stewards of the lands and waters since time immemorial.

We have the migration of the great North Atlantic right whale that is impacted by this.

We have other migratory species that are gonna be impacted by all this plus with the constant disturbance of the seabed floor kicks up saltation, and that in itself almost can choke the life out of the water.

So what we have been asking for and calling upon the United States to do is have a moratorium on the construction and slow this pace down until we can take what we have in place and really study that.

What are those impacts?

And that's what those questions that they're not answering for us.

- I think that many Indigenous people across the world that live near the coast have a relationship with whales.

The whales have always been sacred.

We see them as our people.

Very special.

We need to really handle them with the care that they deserve so that we can all benefit once they're doing their job for the earth and we need to do ours.

- I think what's important to see here is that our industry, it can help the whales, you know, and it can help all species on this planet, right?

We're facing global climate change and we've gotta do something about that.

Offshore wind is bringing that efficiency, and you know, at a scale that's bigger than solar, and I would argue that that is, you know, a positive impact to all species on this planet.

I mean, you look at what global climate change is gonna do to invertebrates in the ocean, and that's very scary.

When you irritate the food chain in the ocean, that sets up a very scary situation.

(whale spouting) It just struck me as, you know, how can we fix this?

Because this is just, that's just unacceptable.

We can't have that happen.

You know, we can't be out there murdering all these animals.

- There's been so much whale activity today that the map is really busy, which is great!

That's exactly what we want to see because that tells us that the system is making detections.

It's finding things out here.

- If you can imagine a world where all of this data was being collected, not just our data on Awarion, but if we had satellite imagery of whales from the sky, if we had acoustics listening to whales from under the water and we were able to pull all of this together in a common operating platform, we'd be able to triangulate the actual moment of where those whales are or their placements really quickly.

So it's really a solvable problem is really what I'm trying to say.

It's not science fiction anymore.

- I think anything we can bring to help these animals and their survival and sustainability is an important contribution.

I think why not throw everything we can at it and see what works?

- The sort of the holy grail where all of us are working together.

I mean, that's what this is all about.

It's about saving whales.

They're these majestic, astonishing creatures, and we wanna save them.

- I feel that this nation as a whole has not done due diligence in finding alternatives.

Wind power seems to be a good alternative, but where do we put it?

Where's the place of development that comes with the least amount of impact?

Maybe AI and possibilities would be a start, but really to give the space and the care that is necessary to the species that we'd love to see them prosper, then what are the extensive measures that need to be taken going forward mapped out?

- Vineyard Wind is projected to eventually produce power