Protecting Blue Corridors – a collaborative international report highlighting the challenges and solutions for migratory whales navigating national and international seas

A new collaborative report from the marine mammal science community and WWF provides the first comprehensive look at large whale migrations and the threats they face across all oceans, highlighting how the cumulative impacts from industrial fishing, ship strikes, pollution, habitat loss, and climate change are creating a hazardous journey. Protecting Blue Corridors report visualizes the satellite tracks of over 1000 migratory whales of eight species worldwide. The report is a first to highlight the growing importance of marine connectivity conservation, outlining how whales are encountering multiple and growing threats along their migration routes, or ‘blue corridors’, and their breeding and feeding habitats. The report is a collaborative analysis of 30 years of scientific data contributed by more than 50 research groups. Case studies highlight hotspots and risks that whales navigate on their migrations. Protecting Blue Corridors calls for a new conservation approach to address these mounting threats and safeguard whales, through enhanced multilateral cooperation from local to regional to international levels. Of particular urgency is engagement with the ongoing negotiations of the United Nations on a new treaty for the high seas (Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction) and the importance of the commitment to implement a comprehensive and representative networks of MPAs by CCAMLR.