From November 10-20 we'll be undertaking a field project off Kona. We have three primary goals for this project, and a lot of secondary goals. First, we are hoping to find and work with false killer whales, including both the endangered main Hawaiian Islands population and the open-ocean population, to deploy satellite tags to track movements and examine diving behavior. Second, we are also hoping to find and work with both Blainville's and goose-beaked whales (note: the photo above is a goose-beaked whale seen on November 9th, 2023, spyhopping in front of our boat), to deploy satellite tags to examine both movements and diving behavior. Third, we are hoping to deploy finmount satellite tags (deployed with the TADpole tagging system developed by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Brookfield Zoo Chicago's Sarasota Dolphin Research Program) on either bottlenose dolphins or pantropical spotted dolphins, to examine movements. Our secondary goals involve working with all the other species we encounter, collecting identification photos and for some species collecting biopsy samples for genetics and stable isotope studies. During the 11-day period we hope to be on the water 9 or 10 days.
This work is funded by a grant from the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, a contract from the State of Hawai'i, and a grant from the Office of Naval Research. Our primary field crew will include Colin Cornforth, Danny Barrios, Shelby Petros, Robin Baird, and Annie Douglas, and we will also have a number of volunteers.
Check back on November 11th for an update!
All photos on this page taken under NMFS Scientific Research Permit No. 26596. If you'd like more information on this project, contact Robin Baird (rwbaird "at" cascadiaresearch "dot" org)