Some commercial vessels will soon take part in a voluntary "trial slowdown” under the umbrella of Quiet Sound, a program working to better understand and mitigate the impacts of shipping on Southern Resident killer whales. “The Southern Residents are fish eaters which means they use echolocation to find their food,” Program Manager Rachel Aronson said. “So they need noise frequency bands that are clear and open to find food, to communicate with their families, and to know where they are in their habitat, so we're hoping to give them some quiet space to thrive.” Quiet Sound is coordinated by Maritime Blue, an organization working to increase equity and sustainability within the maritime industry. It says fleets with high rates of participation are "eligible for documentation to meet a criterion in the Underwater Noise performance indicator for their Green Marine certification." On top of that, many local shippers also care for the whales and are willing to lose a little time to protect them. “Commercial shippers have been at the table from the beginning as part of Quiet Sound so we can put forward programs they can easily and safely participate in,” Aronson said. Read more: https://www.king5.com/article/tech/science/environment/trial-program-ships-slow-down-whales-puget-sound/281-e0ebe5ab-45c3-435c-8e7d-1d27c5a1c93a