Our mission

Share The Ocean is a research programme working to reduce collisions between vessels and marine megafauna. The model is first built on ocean racing, before being applied to shipping as a whole.

Four ambitions

• Protect marine biodiversity — collisions are one of the leading known causes of death for large cetaceans.
• Sustain and develop the maritime economy — a vessel that strikes an animal is damaged too, sometimes irreversibly.
• Increase knowledge of the ocean — producing estimates where data are missing.
• Raise public awareness of major maritime issues — building on the audience of ocean racing.

Our objective

To reduce the number of collisions between marine megafauna and vessels. Because the number of collisions at sea is difficult to estimate, we use statistical modelling, combining species distribution data with vessel routes.

How we work

We take into account the characteristics of the species — size, swimming speed, time spent underwater — and of the vessels — speed polars, dimensions. On this basis we run weather routings and estimate, for each route, the probability of encountering an animal.

Animal densities come from species distribution models, built from observation data. Several marine research institutes provide us with these data internationally, among them the Institute of Marine Research in Norway, the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute in Iceland and the Faroe Marine Research Institute in the Faroe Islands. The resulting distribution models are used as input to our encounter model.

Exclusion zones, when the data are available

In areas where we have information on animal densities, we can propose exclusion zones to avoid areas of concentration, assess how relevant they are, and propose routings that steer around them.

These zones depend on the time of year: the animals are not in the same places in every season.

Who this programme is for

Everyone working at sea. We need to rethink our maritime practices and route vessels more responsibly, in order to preserve marine biodiversity while ensuring the safety of vessels and passengers — and, in doing so, to sustain our maritime activities.

Expertise sought beyond the programme

The expertise built within Share The Ocean is called upon by other bodies working on vessel strikes.

• International Whaling Commission — Auriane Virgili sits on the IWC’s Expert Panel on Vessel Strikes, the international body that maintains the global Ship Strike Database and issues recommendations on the subject.
• Atlantic Whale Deal — the consortium of this Interreg Atlantic Area project (2023–2026, €3.5 M) draws on Auriane Virgili as an external expert. Led from Madeira by ARDITI, it brings together some fifteen partners from Portugal, Spain, France and Ireland to reduce vessel strikes across the Atlantic.

What comes next

Share The Ocean’s ultimate aim is to extend its expertise to shipping as a whole, in order to reduce collisions with marine megafauna globally.