Illustration of the Whale Safe whale detection system that has been implemented in the Santa Barbara Channel off the coast of California, USA. The busy shipping channel saw 21 whales killed by collisions with ships in 2018 and 2019. In an effort to prevent such collisions, data are being collected on the locations of whales in the channel. These data come from three sources; acoustic monitoring instruments (1) that identify blue, humpback, and fin whale vocalisations, observers (2) recording whale sightings aboard whale watch and tourism boats using a mobile app, and from oceanographic data (3) that is used to predict where whales are likely to be each day, based on known habitat preferences. The three near real-time whale data streams are compiled and validated (4) before being being shared (5) with industry and the public.