The Marine Mammal Advisory Group is asking sailors worldwide to participate in an anonymous survey that will document collisions at sea between sailing yachts and marine life.
Goals of the survey include understanding where sailing yachts are having such collisions, to reduce risk for crews, boats and marine life.
The survey is intended to refresh a baseline study that was completed in 2008. The Marine Mammal Advisory Group, founded in 2022, is a coalition trying to protect biodiversity, particularly megafauna and whales, and to discuss solutions for the sailing community.
According to the most recent data from the marine strike log that the advisory group maintains, more than 50 percent of all collisions reported result in damage to the vessel and/or its crew, as well as possible injury or death to marine life. While sailing yachts only represent a percentage of annual global ship strikes, the scale of these incidents largely goes unreported because there is no requirement for systematic reporting.
Building the global strike log database is key to understanding where the hot spots are that need to be avoided, according to the surveyors. The advisory group is looking at one-on-one interviews and requesting that sailors provide additional information in the anonymous survey.
“We’d like to thank in advance everyone who takes the time to complete this survey,” Damian Foxall, professional offshore sailor and co-founder/coordinator of the Marine Mammal Advisory Group. “Seafarers are the eyes and ears of the scientific community. By sharing our observations, we build a better understanding of our impact on ocean life and can use this knowledge to inform better practices as we shift our role from being ocean users to ocean stewards”
Where to take the anonymous survey: https://shorturl.at/hlXgg
Where to learn more about the advisory group: go to https://mmag.world/
