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Fisheries Interactions More Threatening to Maui Nui Dolphins than Previously Thought: Pacific Whale Foundation Researchers Discover New Evidence

Fisheries Interactions More Threatening to Maui Nui Dolphins than Previously Thought: Pacific Whale Foundation Researchers Discover New Evidence

Rare pygmy killer whales' deterioration documented using UH drone tech

University of Hawaiʻi Drone technology by the University of Hawaiʻi Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP) was used to document rapid weight loss in a group of distressed pygmy killer whales off Maui in 2019. The groundbreaking research by the Pacific Whale Foundation (PWF) and the MMRP, which also assisted with analyzing the data, was published this month in Scientific Reports. The use of drones to document the health of marine animals, such as pygmy killer whales a rare species of dolphins could lead to better public policy to protect endangered sea life. “This new approach opens up doors to quantify these changes in body condition, in response to not only human activity, but also larger climatic changes that the environment is posing towards these animals,” said Lars Bejder the director of MMRP, a unit in the UH Mānoa Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology. MMRP is partnering with PWF to use drones to monitor whales and dolphins in the wild.

Rare pygmy killer whales' deterioration documented using UH drone tech | University of Hawaiʻi System News

PWF to use drones to monitor whales and dolphins in the wild. PWF researchers tracked six, distressed pygmy killer whales for 21 days in September 2019, after they were detected within a few hundred meters offshore of Māʻalaea Bay, Maui. Their normal habitat is about 25 miles offshore. The drone technology detected an average of 2% reduction in body weight per whale, per day, with the smallest one losing 27% of its body weight in 17 days. Two of the whales eventually stranded themselves on shore and died and then the remaining four departed the area. “Using (unmanned aircraft systems)-photogrammetry, we were able to document the group’s deterioration over 21 days, as they were in an area not suitable for normal feeding activity,” explains

Coastal News Today | HI - Humpback Whale Collaborative Research Continues in Hawaiian Waters

The laboratory was founded by Adam Pack, who holds a joint appointment in the departments of psychology and biology. On the team are Lars Bejder and Martin van Aswegen of the Marine Mammal Research Program at UH Mānoa, Jens Currie and Stephanie Stack of the Pacific Whale Foundation, Andy Szabo of Alaska Whale Foundation, Shannon Atkinson of University of Alaska, Fairbanks and Kristi West of Hawaiʻi Pacific University. “Our goal is to learn about the physical and reproductive health of the Hawaiʻi distinct population segment of North Pacific humpback whales by measuring how whale body condition, fertility levels and indicators of stress change while calves are nursing and other whales are fasting over the course of a breeding season,” Pack said.