Hudson Saves the Whales!

Through our Green Focus initiative (a HUMAN* project), Hudson remains committed to helping protect and preserve the health and productivity of marine life and the world’s ocean marine and coastal ecosystems.

In 2018, Hudson repeated its long-term commitment and, like in 2017, Hudson teamed up again with the Port of Vancouver’s ECHO Program to determine how commercial shipping traffic affects Southern Resident Killer Whales "SRK Whales" (particularly the impact of vessel speed, ship collisions, underwater acoustic interference, etc.).

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SRK Whales are listed as an endangered wildlife species and face imminent threats to its survival and recovery. With a population of just 76 whales (according to the Center for Whale Research 2018) four key threats have been identified to the whales inhabiting the waters near Vancouver, BC:

• Environmental Contaminants
• Availability of Prey
• Physical Disturbances (ship collisions)
• Acoustic Disturbances (underwater noise)

The study has so far shown that there is a correlation between the noise levels from commercial shipping and the decreased ability of the SRK Whales to forage and successfully locate and catch prey.

The long-term goal of the program is to develop mitigation measures that will reduce the negative effects of commercial shipping activities on the world’s whale population. Hudson proudly volunteered to participate in this program in 2018 by continuing to reduce the speed of our vessels passing the Haro Strait near the vicinity of the Whales, in effort to minimize noise levels.

Together with the ECHO program and Port of Vancouver, Hudson will continue to help save the whales!

* The Hudson Shipping Lines Humanitarian Action Network (HUMAN) is a broadly focused charitable funds whose mission is to leverage Hudson’s assets and experience to identify and advance short- and long-term humanitarian goals.