Slowing Down to Save Whales Could Also Cut Shipping Emissions by Hundreds of Tonnes Per Voyage, White Paper Finds

The shipping industry has spent years debating how to cut emissions without overhauling entire fleets or waiting for next-generation fuels that remain decades from commercial viability. A white paper released March 2, 2026, by the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST) in collaboration with Montreal-based AI company Whale Seeker and True North Marine suggests the answer may already be hiding inside every vessel’s bridge controls: the throttle.

The paper, titled Navigating with Nature: How Smarter Ship Routing Delivers Emissions Cuts and Biodiversity Gains, models a transatlantic route from Montréal, Canada, to Le Havre, France, and integrates ecological sensitivity layers, habitat vulnerability indices, and speed optimization algorithms into the voyage planning process. The results, based on a single route simulation, are striking: modest speed adjustments along the transit could avoid approximately 198 tonnes of CO₂, cut underwater radiated noise exposure by more than 50%, and reduce the risk of a fatal whale strike by up to 86%. The optimized route also yielded fuel savings of 61.7 metric tonnes per crossing.

Those numbers deserve context. A single transatlantic voyage producing nearly 200 fewer tonnes of carbon dioxide is not a rounding error. Multiplied across the thousands of commercial transits that cross the North Atlantic each year, the cumulative reduction potential is enormous, and it requires no new vessel construction, no experimental fuels, and no regulatory overhaul. It requires information and willingness.

The white paper builds on a growing body of research showing that the relationship between vessel speed and whale mortality is not linear; it is exponential. Studies published in Scientific Reports and cited by NOAA Fisheries have consistently demonstrated that the probability of a fatal collision increases dramatically above 10 knots. For the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, which numbers roughly 380 individuals and is the subject of an ongoing Unusual Mortality Event declared in 2017, vessel strikes remain one of the two leading causes of death alongside fishing gear entanglement. NOAA data shows that 42 right whales have died and 40 have been seriously injured since 2017, with the vast majority of those casualties traced to human interaction.

What the IMarEST paper adds to this picture is an economic case. The conventional framing positions whale protection and commercial efficiency as competing interests: slow your ship to save whales, and you lose time and money. The Navigating with Nature model flips that assumption. By integrating real-time ecological data into route planning, the optimized voyage actually saves fuel. The speed adjustments are not uniform reductions across the entire crossing; they are strategic, applied in areas of high ecological sensitivity where whale density, calving grounds, or migratory corridors overlap with the shipping lane. In lower-risk stretches, the vessel can maintain or even increase speed to compensate, keeping overall transit time within commercially acceptable margins.

“What this case study shows is that smarter speed choices could cut costs and emissions now, while also reducing underwater noise and pressure on ocean biodiversity,” said Emily Charry Tissier, CEO and co-founder of Whale Seeker. Charry Tissier, a biologist with two decades of experience in coastal and Arctic ecosystems, founded the company in 2018 to use AI and aerial detection for marine mammal monitoring. Whale Seeker’s technology has since been deployed with Transport Canada to detect right whales in real time in the St. Lawrence corridor.

The underwater noise dimension is worth pausing on. Chronic noise pollution from shipping is one of the least visible but most pervasive threats to marine mammals. Whales and dolphins rely on sound for communication, navigation, and foraging. Elevated background noise from vessel traffic can mask their vocalizations, disrupt feeding behavior, increase stress hormone levels, and in extreme cases cause physical injury. The International Maritime Organization has recognized underwater noise as a significant environmental concern, but regulatory action remains voluntary and unevenly implemented. A 50% reduction in noise exposure through route and speed optimization, as the white paper models, would represent a meaningful improvement for cetacean populations along one of the world’s busiest shipping corridors.

Alasdair Wishart, IMarEST’s technical and policy director, framed the paper in regulatory terms. “This white paper illustrates how the landscape could look for vessel owners and operators should there be further legislation to protect marine mammals,” he said. The subtext is clear: the shipping industry can either adopt these practices voluntarily and capture the fuel savings, or wait for governments to mandate them and lose the first-mover advantage.

The paper was endorsed by the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and produced through IMarEST’s Marine Mammal Special Interest Group, a technical body composed of experts from academia, industry, policy, and government. Strategic framing was supported by Fürstenberg Maritime Advisory.

It is worth noting what the paper does not claim. This is a case study based on a single simulated route, not a fleet-wide operational trial. Real-world implementation would face challenges including schedule pressures, port congestion, contractual obligations, and variable weather. The authors position the work as a starting point for integrating biodiversity intelligence into routing decisions, not a finished policy prescription.

Still, the fundamental insight is hard to argue with. In an industry under intense pressure to decarbonize, the notion that protecting marine life and reducing fuel costs can be pursued simultaneously, rather than traded against each other, is a compelling proposition. The ocean’s largest animals and the industry’s bottom line, it turns out, may have more aligned interests than decades of regulatory debate have assumed.

Source: IMarEST, Whale Seeker, True North Marine | Published March 2, 2026
White paper: Navigating with Nature: How Smarter Ship Routing Delivers Emissions Cuts and Biodiversity Gains | Available at imarest.org

About the organization

We are the largest marine organisation of our kind and the first institute to bring together marine engineers, scientists and technologists into one international multi-disciplinary professional body.

We promote the scientific development of marine engineering, science and technology, providing opportunities for the exchange of ideas and practices and upholding the status, standards and knowledge of marine professionals worldwide.