I'm open to an explanation. But, I think a lot of the effect of the animation is created by the dots representing the whale and ships being huge. In reality the dots would be tiny and almost never come into visible range of each other.
Whales use sound to gather information about their surroundings rather than sight. So it isn't about visibility range, but rather about auditory range. In addition, sound travels at a different speed under water (I don't know how it affects the range).
The movie 'The last Giants' [1] is a documentation about the whales in the Strait of Gibraltar. While I don't think it is a particular good movie (too emotional), I think the basic information presented, gives a good impression of how whales are affected by modern ships. It is cruel.
[1] https://www.sanjuanjournal.com/news/how-vessel-noise-affects...