We'll be undertaking a short field project off Wai‘anae, O‘ahu, from June 20-29. This project is a bit different from our normal efforts, in that we'll be focusing on using a new tagging system, developed by Randy Wells of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program and Michael Moore of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, to deploy single-pin finmount satellite tags to the dorsal fins of several smaller species, including spinner dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, and pantropical spotted dolphins. The tagging system, called the TADpole, deploys a single-pin tag onto the dorsal fin of bowriding dolphins, and has previously been used successfully by the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program with Atlantic spotted dolphins off Florida. These tags are expected to cause less tissue damage than our normal LIMPET tag deployments, and remain attached for longer than LIMPET tags on smaller species. We have previously used LIMPET tags on several species of small odontocetes in Hawai‘i, including bottlenose dolphins, pantropical spotted dolphins, and rough-toothed dolphins, with attachment durations that average about two weeks. We expect (and hope) that attachment durations with the single-pin finmount tag will average at least twice that time. The photo below shows one of these single-pin finmount tags on an Atlantic spotted dolphin in the Gulf of Mexico (with thanks to the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program for sharing this photo).
We will have three different types of finmount tags we are deploying, location-only Argos tags (the Wildlife Computers SPOT6 tags), a SPLASH tag that also transmits dive data, and a tag that also includes Fastloc®-GPS locations, to answer questions related to movements around and among the islands, to examine inshore/offshore movements (particularly for spinner dolphins), and to study diving behavior. Although we will primarily be focusing on deploying finmount tags on small odontocetes using the TADpole system, we'll also be working with other species of whales or dolphins we encounter, and may deploy LIMPET satellite tags on false killer whales, beaked whales, killer whales, or sperm whales, if we encounter them.
Although we are in the 27th year of our Hawai‘i odontocete research, this will only be the eighth year we've had a dedicated field effort off O‘ahu. Our first project off O‘ahu was in April 2002, and we returned for field projects there in May 2003, October 2010, January and February 2015, January and October 2016, November 2017, and March 2023. Since 2024, one of our team (Mark Mohler) has also been doing occasional 'rapid response' effort off O‘ahu when sightings of high priority species are seen.
The research team for this project will include Randy Wells and Aaron Barleycorn of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, Mark Mohler, Colin Cornforth, and Robin Baird of Cascadia, and a number of volunteers. This project is funded by Dolphin Quest, a contract from the State of Hawai‘i (specifically to study false killer whales), and donations to Cascadia Research Collective.
If you are going to be on the water off Wai‘anae during this period, please call if you see any of these less-commonly encountered species! If you don't have a cell phone number for the team, please reach out to Robin Baird at the email below ahead of time. If you have any questions, please contact Robin Baird at rwbaird (at) cascadiaresearch (dot) org.
Check back on June 21st for updates!