Protecting Blue Corridors

Protecting Blue Corridors is a global conservation project to safeguard migration routes of whales who navigate long distances between breeding and feeding areas each year. Species like humpback whales can travel up to 8,500 kilometres each way on these great migrations twice a year. However, these ocean highways are increasingly becoming dangerous. 

Cetaceans – whales, dolphins and porpoises – have tremendous value for nature and people. They are at the top of the marine food web and play an important role in the overall health of our oceans, conserving other species and whole ecosystems. Whales play a significant role in capturing carbon from the atmosphere; each great whale sequesters an estimated 33 tons of CO2 on average, thus playing their part in the fight against climate change, while contributing over $2billion US dollars to global tourism. They are some of the ocean’s most inspiring species. 

Whales and dolphins rely on critical ocean habitats – areas where they feed, mate, give birth, nurse their young, socialise or migrate – for their survival. 

Migratory ocean species such as whales have no boundaries. Their range can often span state, national and international jurisdictions.

In countless areas around the globe, these important ocean areas for whales are under threat. An estimated 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises are killed each year as a result of fisheries bycatch, while populations are impacted from increasing ship traffic and loss of important habitats impacted by climate change, crucial for their survival. In fact, a third of the world’s cetaceans are now classified as threatened. 

Only a tiny fraction of critical cetacean habitat is protected from these threats. Improved ecosystem-based management is urgently needed to care for vulnerable populations, as governments and policy makers are often unaware of the importance of critical habitats under their care.

But there is hope. WWF is collaborating with experts from the University of California Santa Cruz, Oregon State University Marine Mammal Institute and others to design innovative on-ground science solutions that will change international and national policies protecting critical habitats for whales. We – all of us who work to protect marine species and ecosystems – can make greater headway towards stronger ocean conservation. A holistic view to protect a vast range of blue corridors for whales can also bring economic opportunities, such as the potential to improve commercial fisheries, while the tourism and local community benefits can be substantial. 

Protecting Blue corridors is a new approach to conserve whales. Our ocean giants demonstrate the oceans belong to all of us.

We will map the routes of migratory whales moving through international waters, national seas and coastal areas and between key breeding and foraging areas, analysing the overlapping emerging threats.

In 2021, the United Nations is negotiating an international treaty (the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty) to protect our high seas. Protecting Blue Corridors will seize on the opportunity to increase protection for whales on the high seas and advocate for solutions in regional and national hotspots.

Would you like to get involved? Contact us for more information.