The North Atlantic right whale is one of the world’s most endangered species, with an estimated 380 whales remaining.
In the Southeast, vessel strikes are a leading cause of death for whales, since the waters of Georgia and Florida are the only known calving grounds for these gentle giants. Each winter, between November and April, right whale mothers travel down the East Coast to give birth to their calves in our warm, welcoming waters. During their thousand-mile trek, these whales cross paths with thousands of large commercial and recreational vessels and risk collisions with mariners.
Georgia Conservancy is advancing new technology to reduce the threat of whale strikes in Georgia’s calving grounds, protecting these whale mothers and their precious cargo. In April 2025, we established an Automatic Identification System (AIS) beacon on the Sapelo Island Lighthouse. This safety and navigation system is currently required on commercial vessels larger than 65 feet to collect and share information about vessel identity, speed, size, course, and real-time location via radio-frequency.
Georgia Conservancy, along with our partners at MotionInfo and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, is helping establish a network of AIS beacons in Georgia that alert mariners who are traveling unsafely in right whale calving grounds. The beacon network is specifically used to enforce the 2008 NOAA Vessel Speed Rule, which requires any vessels larger than 65’ to travel at speeds under 10 knots in seasonal right whale calving grounds. In Georgia, this means that large vessels must travel at these slow speeds between November and April, when right whales are calving and rearing their young in our waters.
Learn more about potential changes to the ship speed rule.
Installing AIS beacons like this one at lighthouses across the East Coast gives these stations a new life: no longer functioning as a warning for approaching land, but a warning for a potential loss of these beautiful creatures. These stations act as a new beacon of hope for protecting North Atlantic right whales, as these animals give new life to the next generation of their survival.
Optimism about the survival of this species was felt throughout the 2025-2026 calving season, during which a record-breaking 23 calves were born in Georgia waters. This is the largest number of whales born in almost twenty years. During this season, AIS beacons in Georgia broadcast over 5,000 alerts to mariners speeding in right whale calving grounds. The Sapelo Island AIS beacon, established by the Georgia Conservancy, broadcast 149 alerts to mariners during this season. These alerts are reminders to vessel operators about the laws in place to protect these critically endangered giants, and they also serve as a reminder to all of us about the new life growing off our cherished Georgia coast.