“The Canadian government operates roughly 60 land-based weather stations and buoys along the BC coast, but they are spread too far apart to capture conditions everywhere. To decide if it’s safe to cast off, then, ship captains are left shuffling between subscription weather services and free apps, says Scott Beatty, the CEO of Victoria-based start-up MarineLabs. Even ferry captains, responsible for safely shuttling hundreds of people between ports, have been known to consult windsurfing message boards to get information.
As artificial intelligence becomes more mainstream, Beatty’s company is building a new machine learning–based weather forecasting system to make shipping safer. Beatty says that most users don’t realize that existing weather apps, such as Windy and Windfinder, almost all depict the same government forecasts. But since 2017, MarineLabs has deployed more than 60 new weather buoys and sensor arrays to collect additional data about the conditions along crucial shipping routes near Vancouver and Prince Rupert, Canada’s largest West Coast ports, around major East Coast harbors, and in one test location in the United States.”
Read the full article in Hakai Magazine (also featured in Popular Science) and explore how MarineLabs’ data and Forecast AI are taking the guesswork out of maritime safety.
