Even regular slow-moving vessels sometimes ram humpback whales. Here a University vessel runs over a pod of humpbacks. With Hydrofoils, the whales don't stand a chance of diving in time - and impacts are more often fatal. (aerial photo by D White) D.J. White
In 1981, Greenpeace Foundation convinced financier Lee Martin to cancel orders for Boeing 929 Hydrofoils, which ended their use in Hawaiian waters. This was done because it turned out there was simply no way to prevent killing humpback whales, an endangered species – and because there was a human-safety concern too.
These large hydrofoil craft were technologically “cool” – flying on submerged, knifelike wings at speeds in excess of 60mph, and powered by the same engines that powered Boeing’s twin-engine 737 aircraft. Unfortunately, using them was akin to driving a car fast through the fog…. you just have to “hope” nothing going to be there for you to crash into. Speeding in the fog is a bad way to drive; and as it turns out, running hydrofoils in areas with a lot of whales is about as bad. Whale-hydrofoil collisions have killed whales, and people, in the past because of the inherent avoidance problem.
Due to the rolling of ocean swells, the sonar of a hydrofoil can’t see surface objects – even BIG objects – like whales in its path. Compounding this problem, the fast speed of a hydrofoil is typically nothing a whale is accustomed to, and the whale may not be able to avoid a collision even if it hears one coming. Indeed, the whales which spend most time at the surface are the babies, which are nearly invisible even to a boat going a fraction the speed of a hydrofoil.
An ancillary problem for the marine environment – though less of a danger to human passengers – is that the engine intakes of the hydrofoils would suck up any dolphins trying to ride the expected “bow wave”, jamming the engines with mushed-up dolphin. (the efficient hydroplane areas do not waste energy in the same way as a boat hull, and so produce a very thin and unridable bow wave.)
Greenpeace Foundation worked for many years with these hydrofoils to try to figure a way for them to co-exist with seasonal whale populations. (Martin himself proposed towing a whale-spotter in a hang glider at 1000 feet up. The Boeing sales reps asked what the problem of losing a few humpbacks was). Finally, though, the decision was made – by Greenpeace Foundation – that this was not appropriate technology for a potential whale sanctuary; and those waters have not seen hydrofoils since. Newer technology is bringing fast, stable ships with less “impact” on the environment.
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