ECHO
Detecting and redirecting whales before they become trapped, closing the door before the whale walks through it.
A private initiative building a global early-warning system. The Baltic is the pilot; the model is designed to deploy anywhere.
She entered through one of three narrow passages: the Øresund, the Great Belt, or the Little Belt. Every large whale in the Baltic sighting record passed through one of these corridors. Had detection existed there, her entry could have been caught within hours. Had deterrence been in place, she could have been turned back. Had an escort capability existed, she could have been guided out within days, while still healthy. None of these systems existed. ECHO is the proposal to build them.
What ECHO Is
Monitoring & Detection
Fixed automated stations at bottleneck passages (daytime optical cameras, thermal imaging for night, and passive-acoustic hydrophone arrays tuned to baleen-whale calls), powered by an ECHO AI detection model trained for baleen-whale identification in near-real time. A citizen-science network of coastal communities, sailors, ferry crews and fishermen provides the spatial coverage no fixed sensor can, increasingly fed by the Whale Detective public reporting platform, the citizen-science front door to the entire ECHO network.
Deterrence
Non-invasive measures that discourage an animal from continuing inward: directional acoustic pingers and bubble curtains, perceptual barriers baleen whales read as a wall and will not cross. The bubble-curtain principle was demonstrated operationally in the 1985 Humphrey rescue, and is well within range at the ~2 km Wismar Bay entrance.
Escorting
For whales already inside, trained rapid-response teams use proven non-invasive herding (acoustic lures, vessel formations, bubble nets) to guide the animal back through the straits. The same methods moved Humphrey ~50 miles through San Francisco Bay in seven hours. The operating principle is speed: days, not weeks.
A Layered Defence
ECHO doesn't rely on a single line. Each layer narrows the animal's path back toward open water rather than deeper into the maze.
Whale Detective: see a whale, help us find it again
Whale Detective is ECHO's public sighting and identification platform. It invites anyone on or near the water (sailors, ferry crews, fishermen, coastal residents, tourists) to report sightings of large cetaceans, and especially individually recognisable animals: a notched fluke, an entanglement scar, an unusual marking, a known individual moving where it should not be. Each report (time, location, photographs, notes) is captured in one structured record.
The immediate purpose is coverage: a single credible report of a large whale entering a bottleneck can trigger the ECHO response chain within minutes. The longer-term purpose is continuity: by matching repeat sightings of the same identifiable individual, Whale Detective builds a movement picture for specific animals, turning scattered observations into a tracked history that supports early intervention, post-release monitoring, and the survival record the rescue model depends on. It begins as a reporting channel integrated with ECHO and is expected to grow into a dedicated platform of its own.
The Roadmap
Phase 0: Foundations
In progressPut the public concept live and stand up the lightweight data layer every later phase depends on. The ECHO page goes live with the three-pillar explanation, the Whale Detective reporting channel begins feeding sightings into a single structured log, and the Baltic sighting record from 2014 to the present is digitised as the seed dataset. Outreach begins to ferry operators, sailing clubs, coastal municipalities, and fisheries associations around the Danish Straits and Mecklenburg Bay.
Phase 1: Citizen Network & Detection Pilot
PlannedBuild the cheapest, highest-coverage detection layer (people) and prove the machine pipeline with one station. The citizen-science reporting network is formally launched, an alert protocol defines who is notified within minutes of a credible sighting, and partnerships are secured with ferry operators and fisheries associations. The ECHO AI detection model is trained on the seed dataset for baleen-whale identification, and one pilot automated detection station (optical, thermal, hydrophone) is specified, sourced, and bench-tested.
Phase 2: Pilot Deployment at the Outer Gate
PlannedMove from bench to water. The first fixed station is installed at a real Danish Straits bottleneck, streaming detections into the ECHO dashboard in near-real time. A species-distribution model drawing on Copernicus Marine and EMODnet environmental data is integrated, and the dashboard fuses automated detections, model predictions, and citizen reports on one map. The first full monitoring season is completed, reviewed, and published. An inner-gate site assessment is completed for the Wismar Bay entrance as the planned second station.
Phase 3: Deterrence Capability
PlannedPair detection with the ability to turn an animal back. Directional acoustic pingers and a rapidly deployable bubble-curtain system are trialled. A bubble-curtain installation is engineered for the approximately 2 km Wismar Bay entrance, well within effective range. Activation logic links the outer gate to the inner gate so that detection at the strait automatically pre-positions deterrence at the bay entrance. Field tests are conducted and results published, and coordination protocols are agreed with maritime-traffic authorities for safe activation in shipping lanes.
Phase 4: Escort Readiness
PlannedStand up and drill the trained escort capability, sharing personnel and doctrine with GWRA. The escort team is trained in non-invasive acoustic herding (the Humphrey and Delta-and-Dawn method set), pre-mapped herding routes are published for the western Baltic covering both long-range return corridors through the straits and short urgent-extraction routes from Wismar and Mecklenburg Bay, and staged vessel positions are drilled in at least one full exercise. Training and equipment standards are aligned with the GWRA Certified-Partner programme, and the 48-hour activation-to-on-scene capability is demonstrated in exercise conditions.
Phase 5: Layered System & Replication
PlannedClose the full loop in the Baltic, then package ECHO as a deployable model for other regions. The second (inner-gate) station goes live at the Wismar Bay entrance, completing the layered detection chain. A full season is run end-to-end: detect at the outer gate, track across the western Baltic, deter at the inner gate, escort if breached. The published ECHO operating model and station specification is released as a replication template, a first non-Baltic site is selected with a local host partner, and the hand-off protocol with GWRA is formalised so a breached ECHO escort transitions cleanly to a GWRA rescue.
An innovative, non-invasive satellite tag
ECHO's escort work and GWRA's rescues both depend on knowing where an animal goes after it is turned back or released. We're developing a new, innovative satellite tag that attaches without darts, wounds, or any tissue penetration, a genuinely non-invasive way to follow an animal long after it leaves us. The animal doesn't feel it.
Built for long-term global tracking, it is the proof mechanism behind the whole model: the tag pings, the animal is alive. In time, a verified survival could potentially underwrite carbon credits, for small and large cetaceans alike, as part of a future, self-funding model for rescue. Its development runs in parallel with the ECHO systems.
ECHO & GWRA
Help build the early-warning system
ECHO is a private initiative funded by its founding supporters. The first phases cost almost nothing but reach, exactly what early support makes possible.
Become a Founding Supporter See GWRA →