Under a new voluntary trial initiative off the Southern California coast, shippers will be paid to slow down to avoid hitting whales.

Firms will receive $2,500 each time they travel at low speeds through the Santa Barbara Channel, where shipping lanes cross a primary feeding area for migrating blue whales, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times.

The unique incentive program, aimed at the thousands of cargo ships carrying goods to and from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach annually, is funded by the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District and the Santa Barbara Foundation and is administered by the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation.

The speed reduction program -- which will ask ships to cruise 12 knots or slower through a 130-mile stretch from Point Conception to the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex, even though normal cruising speed is between 14 and 18 knots -- is the latest effort to address long-standing concerns over ship collisions that have killed dozens of endangered blue, humpback and fin whales over the last 10 to 15 years and threaten their recovery.

Lower speeds, program advocates say, are expected to reduce the risk of ship strikes fatal to whales, not to mention give the giant mammals more time to swim away from approaching ships.

Backers explain they hope to evaluate the effects of speed reduction on the whales and also test the shipping industry's willingness to participate in such a program before marshaling support for a larger-scale plan.

Three years ago the Environmental Defense Center and other advocacy groups unsuccessfully petitioned the Obama administration to require shippers to reduce their speed through California's four national marine sanctuaries to protect whales.

Then, last year, the United State Coast Guard moved the southbound shipping lane that cuts through the Santa Barbara Channel a mile closer to shore to avoid the area with the highest concentration of whales.

Yet, whales have continued to be at risk of being hit by ships, even with the new configuration, marine researchers say.

The payments are intended to compensate shippers for some of the cost of slowing down through the channel, which adds an estimated four hours to a typical container ship's trans-Pacific voyage.

However, the sums "don't really come close to covering the additional cost or risk that they're incurring by slowing down," said T.L. Garrett, vice president of the industry group Pacific Merchant Shipping Association.

Six global shipping companies are participating in the trial program, which will offer payments for 16 low-speed trips from July through much of October.