Features & Capabilities

Protect Whales. Prevent Collisions. Join the Effort.

Vessel strikes are a leading cause of whale injury and death around the world. With the Whale Alert app, you can help keep whales safe—whether you're a mariner, recreational boater, beachgoer, or scientist.

Whale Alert turns your sightings into action.

Report live, dead, or injured whales, stay informed about speed zones and regulations, and view whale activity on an interactive map. Every report contributes to a safer ocean for whales and people.

Key Features:

  • Interactive Map: View recent whale sightings from professionals and citizen scientists, acoustic detections from buoys and gliders, and aerial survey data.
  • Real-Time Alerts: Get notified when you're near recent whale activity or areas of concern.
  • Report Sightings: Log sightings of living, dead, or injured whales and report marine hazards or vessel strikes.
  • Whale ID Guide: Identify whale species accurately using an in-app identification tool.
  • First Responder Connection: Quickly connect with response teams for distressed, stranded or dead whales..
  • Collision Risk Monitoring: Understand your vessel’s risk based on location, speed, and likelihood of whale presence.
  • Marine Rules at a Glance: Access speed limits, seasonal protections, and region-specific whale approach guidelines.
  • Data-Rich Map Layers: Includes arine sanctuaries and protected areas, seasonal and dynamic management areas, U.S. marine charts, NOAA PORTS® data, and likely whale presence along the U.S. East Coast and Europe.
  • Multilingual Support: Available in English, French, and Spanish.

Whale Alert is currently available in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.


Why It Matters: Whales are vulnerable to collisions with vessels of all sizes. In California, gray whales are the most commonly reported victims of vessel strikes. On the Atlantic coast, the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale faces a similar threat. In the Mediterranean, vessel strikes are the leading cause of human-caused death for fin and sperm whales.

Slowing down saves lives. Whale Alert empowers you to take simple, informed actions that make a big impact. By reporting sightings and following in-app guidance, you help reduce ship strikes, inform science and policy, and protect some of the ocean’s most iconic creatures.

The Whale Alert team consists of IFAW, Conserve.IO and Greenov. We are part of a global effort to reduce vessel strikes and other human activities that threaten marine mammals. Our network of partners, contributors and sponsors include NOAA Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, Whale Alert — West Coast, NOAA Fisheries Service, Canadian Whale Institute, Channel Island Cetacean Research Unit, Bay of Fundy—Tidal Energy, Whale Alert Alaska—National Park Service, The Marine Mammal Center, Orca Network, Beam Reach, OceanWise, Marine Mammal Advisory Group, Ørsted and ProtectedSeas.

Download Whale Alert today and help make the ocean safer for whales—one sighting at a time.


Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.

User Growth & Download Statistics

App
By:
Conserve.IO
Rating:
3.20
(39)
Version:
4.4.0 Last updated: 2026-02-27
Version code:
882863894
Creation date:
2014-09-05
Compatible devices:
Size:
127.39MB
URLs:
Website ,Privacy policy
Full description:
See detailed description
Source:
Apple Apps Store
Data ingested on:
2026-06-05
Compare stats and ranking:

Ranking

Contact the developer

Chrome-Stats does not own this Apple app. Please use these information below to contact the Apple app developer.
Developed by:
Conserve.IO
Apple Apps Store
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/whale-alert/id911035973
Website:
https://www.whalealert.org

User Reviews

Users broadly praise Whale Alert for its valuable whale sighting data, reporting capability, and usefulness to mariners. However, many reviews report instability after updates: crashes, heavy lag, and data-loading issues that hinder use. Notifications are perceived as too frequent, and some features users expect—such as area-specific alerts and species/time filters—are missing. The app is appreciated for its purpose and design, but stability and feature gaps are major recurring complaints.
Pros
  • High-quality whale sighting data and broad geographic coverage for enthusiasts and mariners
  • Ability to report sightings directly in the app
  • Useful for boaters to stay aware and avoid ship strikes
  • Straightforward, clean design that users praise
  • Free app that provides valuable open data for whale monitoring
Cons
  • Frequent crashes and freezes after updates, making the app barely usable
  • Significant map lag and performance issues from extra layers
  • API/data loading delays and occasional unavailable data during use
  • Push notifications become annoying and overly frequent
  • Missing features like area-based alerts and filters (species/time) and location-based search
Recent reviews
The new updates have made the app less user friendly as a person that enjoys seeing where whales are, when they were there, and photos of them where they were reported. Now all we see is a grey unconfirmed alert for about a day, and many times it will give error messages that data is unavailable. I think more filters for whale types and 1 day option would be useful. Please bring back the previous functionality.
by Ro*****, 2025-08-25

For the last few weeks, I get notifications several times a day (while I’m driving on the freeway, in a restaurant, at home, etc) that I’m about to hit a whale. The notifications are getting a bit annoying. I kept the app hoping updates would fix, but it’s been a bit now. Deleting and hoping this gets resolved!
by xs*****, 2025-08-04

Used to be an incredible app but it is now completely broken and unusable. I have the iPhone 16 Pro and this app is barely functional now with the new updates. Not sure what they optimized this app for, but it is broken on iPhones now
by wi*****, 2025-08-02
View all user reviews ›

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