Matson Slows Down To Protect Whales, While Pasha Hawaii Speeds On
Whale researchers praised the shipping giant's strides to improve its record, which followed a Civil Beat investigation. Competitor Pasha remains among the worst offenders.
Until recently, both of Hawaii’s main shipping companies, Matson and Pasha, held two of the worst records among all major ocean shippers in slowing down their vessels off the California coast to avoid collisions with endangered whales.
That’s changed for one of the companies.
Matson has dramatically improved its record in recent whale migration seasons, slowing its vessels to 10 knots or less in California’s busy shipping lanes most of the time, according to data collected by scientists at the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory.
The Benioff group’s Whale Safe initiative had given Matson an F rating in 2022 for slowing down just 17.5% of the time.
This year so far, Matson has essentially flipped that record and complied with the recommended speed limit 86% of the time, giving it an A grade under Whale Safe.
“It’s a huge win,” said Rachel Rhodes, a project scientist at the Benioff group, which is part of the University of California, Santa Barbara. “It really signals to us that they’re taking whale conservation to be a priority and taking some actionable steps.”
Pasha, meanwhile, remains among the worst offenders. Over the past five years the company has routinely complied with the 10-knot suggestion less than 20% of the time, based on the Benioff data.
So far this year, Pasha’s vessels have complied 10% of the time. The company did not respond this week to requests for comment.
Pinpointing Which Ship Hit A Whale Is Difficult
More than 80 endangered whales are now estimated to be killed each year across the West Coast when struck by large vessels, according to Douglas McCauley, an ocean sciences professor at UCSB and director of the Benioff laboratory.
Some dead whales are discovered still wrapped around the bows of ships as they arrive in port, according to federal marine sanctuary officials. Although no whale collisions off California have been linked to either Matson or Pasha, it can be difficult to connect strikes directly to a particular vessel.
Some wash ashore. The carcass of Fran, a popular and heavily photographed whale, came ashore in September south of the Golden Gate Bridge with a broken neck, likely caused by a ship strike.
Most whales killed in ship collisions are never found, however, because they sink to the ocean floor, according to Rhodes and other researchers. For every fatal strike that’s documented, they’ve said as many as 10 others could go undetected out at sea.
The Key To Matson’s Success: A Detour
Matson spokesman Keoni Wagner said Tuesday the company has boosted its whale safety record by adjusting the vessel routes from San Francisco to the Port of Long Beach, just south of Los Angeles, starting in August.
The new route heading south along California allows the Matson vessels to avoid the areas where migrating whales tend to feed, Wagner said, but it also adds several hours to the company’s already tight shipping schedule.
Despite the added time, he said Matson’s customers — which include big box retailers and grocery stores doing business in Hawaii — have supported the changes to help better protect the whales.
Shipping vessel speed reductions are crucial, federal wildlife officials and conservationists say, to help stop the collisions that kill dozens of endangered blue, fin and humpback whales in that area every year. They say whale strikes must be curbed significantly if those species are to recover.
“As we have become more aware of the science our concern around making sure we can do all we can to prevent this from happening has increased,” Wagner said Monday.
Matson also began a partnership about a year ago with the Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to develop ship-mounted cameras that can detect the whales and help the vessels avoid them.
The shipping company has committed $1 million to the research and development of the so-called “whale-detection cameras,” according to Wagner and recent media release from Woods Hole.
Three of those cameras were mounted to Matson ships in recent months, Wagner said, and at least one has started providing data to Woods Hole for what’s expected to be a three-year pilot program.
