University of Gibraltar has hosted the meeting of the WAVE project (Whale watching AIS Vessel movement Evaluation project) on Monday 17th of December.

Participants involved include the Universities of Cádiz, of Gibraltar and of Victoria (British Columbia, Canada); the Department of Environment, Heritage and Climate Change; representatives of Dolphin Adventure and Ecolocaliza, as well as MMIRC.

Working in partnership with the whale watching industry, regulators and exactEarth, in British Columbia and the Strait of Gibraltar, WAVE project aims to increase the understanding of whale watching activities in general using AIS, and to determine the feasibility of utilizing AIS data as a tool for informing whale watching operations as well as conservation policy and regulations in particular. Through the research we hope to empower individual vessel operators to collect data that are valuable.