02/21/2024

Coast Guard Launches Boat Alert System in Seattle to Keep Whales Safe

The pilot program aims to alert vessels of whale sightings

Photographer Matt McDonald had lived on Puget Sound for years, but had never seen a whale, so he was elated when he spotted a giant marine mammal just off Seattle's waterfront one evening.

The excitement was short-lived. As McDonald tracked the whale in his camera's viewfinder, a state ferry that dwarfed the animal came into the frame. The next morning he saw on the news that the humpback whale had died in the collision he witnessed.

"I still remember the moment of when they crossed paths and my heart just sinking like, 'Oh my God, the ferry just ran over the whale,'" he recalled of the 2019 encounter. "I wish there was something I could have done."

Please select this link to read the complete article from ABC News.