The Dolphin Institute

Aloha All,
Just back from my 17th summer studying humpback whales from Hawai’i and Mexico on their summer feeding grounds under NOAA Permit 29593. Our goals were to carry on the legacy of studies begun in 1980 by my mentor Dr. Louis Herman and his students in these same waters documenting the long-term life histories of individually-identified humpback whales, record their association patterns, and characterize their feeding behaviors. I along with Captain Harley, Chef Katie, Mates Ryan and Bart, and a wonderful team of eight eager participants including Ron Antinoja, one of the original researchers of humpbacks in Hawai'i with Lou (e.g. Herman & Antinoja, 1977), traversed calm seas in Frederick Sound, Stephens Passage and Chatham Strait where we documented the identities of over 200 humpback whales, some of them hunting herring in cooperative feeding groups using bubbles and feeding calls, and others singly using bubbles to corral krill. It was both exciting and heartwarming to recognize many of these whales as those I have seen in Alaska and Hawai’i over decades. Included among the bunch was a whale we call “Old Timer” first photographed as an adult by whale research pioneer Chuck Jurasz in Lynn Canal in 1972. That makes “Old Timer” at least 53 years old constituting the oldest known living humpback whale in the world, and one that was resilient in the face of the unprecedented North Pacific marine heatwave from 2014-2017 that devastated food resources humpbacks and other marine species rely on. Along our journey, we encountered calving glaciers and icebergs and spotted Stellar sea lions, Dall’s porpoises, harbor seals, black and brown bears, and adult and juvenile eagles. Now back in Hilo, Hawai’i my students, staff and I are processing the data eager to eventually share with you all our findings. Can’t wait for next summer’s adventures! All of this work takes place with support from the University of Hawai’i at Hilo Marine Mammal Lab, our non-profit organization The Dolphin Institute, and the leadership of Alaska Sea Adventure’s Northern Song. And the web based program “Happy Whale” provided us with the tools to be able to identify whales “in the moment.” With aloha and gratitude, Adam

On the Birthday of Dr. Louis M. Herman, pioneer in the scientific study of dolphin cognition and communication, and co-founder of The Dolphin Institute, we are thrilled to announce that Emma Chereskin is the 2024 recipient of The Louis M. Herman Research Scholarship, established by family, colleagues and friends in memory of Dr. Herman. If you would like to donate to this biennial award in honor of Dr. Herman, please visit https://thedolphininstitute.org/donate/

Congratulations to Emma Chereskin for winning the Louis M Herman Research Scholarship 2024 for her proposal “Vocal communication and the cooperative mind: Exploring vocally mediated collaboration during a polyadic cooperative act in wild bottlenose dolphins”. The Dolphin Institute 🐬

Louis M. Herman, Ph.D. and Emeritus Professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA, will always be remembered for his innovative, creative, and scientifically rigorous approach to the study of the marine mammals he so loved, and for the future generations of marine mammal researchers he and his work continue to inspire. The Louis M. Herman Research Scholarship supports research projects that contribute to our understanding of either cetacean cognition and sensory perception or humpback whale behavioural ecology or communication.

Aloha Friends and Supporters of TDI,
We are pleased and honored to announce the publication of the paper “Bellwethers of change: population modelling of North Pacific humpback whales from 2002 through 2021 reveals shift from recovery to climate response” in the scientific journal Royal Society Open Science. Lead by Ted Cheeseman, developer of the HappyWhale https://happywhale.com an online automated humpback whale tail fluke matching program and database, the paper pooled together tens of thousands of humpback whale tail fluke photographs (the underside of a humpback whale’s tail fluke has a unique pigmentation pattern and trailing edge that can serve as the “finger-print” for identifying individuals) from scores of research groups including TDI. The results showed that the population of humpback whales in the North Pacific increased to a peak estimate of 33,488 +/- 4455 whales in 2012. However, a 20% decline in abundance to 2021 suggested that the population reached carrying capacity due to loss of prey resources. This was especially reflected in the Hawaiian humpback whale breeding grounds (the principal mating and calving area for North Pacific humpbacks) in which abundance had decreased by 34% by 2021 from its peak in 2013. In contrast, no parallel decline was observed over this period in Mainland Mexico, a small breeding grounds for North Pacific humpbacks. Sandwiched within these years from 2014-2016, an unprecedented in size marine heatwave adversely impacted marine resources which humpback whales and other species rely on for sustenance. The result appeared to be several years of poor reproductive and physical health for many humpbacks wintering in Hawaii and summering in Alaska. TDI is proud to have contributed over 10,000 tail fluke images from Hawaii and Alaska from its archival catalog of over 30,000 images for this study. TDI’s President and Research Director, Dr. Adam Pack joined over 60 other researchers as a co-author on the study which is available online at
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.231462

The paper is an unprecedented-in-scope collaboration among humpback whale researchers as well as boat captains, crew and participants on whale watch excursions who generously donated their images to Happy Whale. It shows how when we all pool our resources and talent together we can learn remarkable things about humpback whales and their marine environment.

Bellwethers of change: population modelling of North Pacific humpback whales from 2002 through 2021 reveals shift from recovery to climate response | Royal Society Open Science For the 40 years after the end of commercial whaling in 1976, humpback whale populations in the North Pacific Ocean exhibited a prolonged period of recovery. Using mark–recapture methods on the largest individual photo-identification dataset ever ...

Aloha Friends of The Dolphin Institute. We are delighted to let you known that the Louis M. Herman Research Scholarship is now Open for Proposals. The Scholarship was established to honor the lifelong groundbreaking dolphin and whale research by TDI's co-founder Lou Herman.

Dr. Louis M. Herman, Ph.D. and Emeritus Professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA, was a pioneer and trailblazer in research on dolphin sensory perception and cognition, and humpback whale behavioural ecology. Dr. Herman’s family, colleagues, and friends established the Louis M. Herman Research Scholarship in 2017 to honor his legacy by promoting the type of research that was the focus of his ground-breaking studies.

The Louis M. Herman research scholarship is awarded every two years by the Society for Marine Mammalogy and is open for application today (November 27 2023). The 2024 award will be for USD $6,000. Eligibility criteria and the application process is available at https://marinemammalscience.org/.../louis-m-herman.../

Pictured below are two of the most recent scholarship award recipients along with Dr. Herman. A convenient QR code to scan for scholarship information is also provided.

📸 Look at this post on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/share/p/E5DZjzWwtG6D2agT/?mibextid=WC7FNe

Louis M. Herman Research Scholarship: Open for Proposals.
The Scholarship is given every two years by the Society for Marine Mammalogy and is open for application today (November 27 2023). The 2024 award will be for USD $6,000. Eligibility criteria and the application process is available at https://marinemammalscience.org/awards-funding/awards-and-scholarships/louis-m-herman-research-scholarship/

The Dolphin Institute Whale and Dolphin Conservation

Wow!! Awesome news that our collaborative documentary film on the Hawaii Distinct Population segment of humpback whales and climate events was just officially selected for the International Oceans film Festival in San Francisco!! Mahalo nui to film producers PBS South Florida’s CHANGING SEAS as well as our awesome set of collaborators!

We’re over the moon! “Vanishing Whales” is an Official Selection of the International Ocean Film Festival in San Francisco. UH Hilo Pack Marine Mammal Lab The Dolphin Institute University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo
Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology - HIMB
Alaska Whale Foundation Marine Mammal Research Program University of Hawaii Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary University of Hawaii at Manoa

We are thrilled to inform our members and followers that this year, two students were chosen to receive the Louis M. Herman Student Research Scholarship: Franca Eichenberger of the University of St. Andrews, Scotland for the proposal “Eavesdropping on Whales – Does Humpback Whale Song Convey Genetic Quality?” and Julia Zeh of Syracuse University, the United States of America, for the proposal “Exploring Vocal Development in Humpback Whales.” Both proposals, rated at the top of 17 received from 9 different countries, focus on groundbreaking areas of marine mammal science closely related to Dr. Herman’s research, and capture his innovative and creative spirit. The winners were recently announced at the 24th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals held in August in Palm Beach, Florida. A committee of marine mammal scientists meet every two years to consider proposals for The Louis M. Herman Student Research Scholarship. The scholarship was developed to honor Dr. Herman’s legacy of pioneering and creative research in dolphin cognition and humpback whale behavioral ecology, biology and communication by the Herman family, Dr. Adam A. Pack, TDI co-founder and long-time colleague of Dr. Herman, and the Society for Marine Mammalogy. To learn more about the scholarship and the awardees, please see the following link: https://marinemammalscience.org/awards-funding/awards-and-scholarships/louis-m-herman-research-scholarship/2022-louis-m-herman-winners/

For over 2 years, The Dolphin Institute has been working together with the UH Hilo Marine Mammal Laboratory to conduct pioneering studies of spinner dolphins off the windward coast of Hawai'i Island. This past Thursday, November 10, we were thrilled that UH Hilo Marine Mammal Lab co-Manager Trisha Alvarez, who is also TDI President Adam Pack's Graduate Student in the UH Hilo Tropical Conservation Biology and Environmental Science (TCBES) Master of Science Degree Program, successfully defended her thesis "INVESTIGATING SPINNER DOLPHIN PRESENCE ALONG THE WINDWARD COAST OF HAWAI’I ISLAND THROUGH BOTH PASSIVE ACOUSTIC MONITORING (PAM) AND BOAT-BASED VISUAL TECHNIQUES." Congratulations Trisha!!!

Honored to learn that the PBS documentary "Humpback Whale Health" which features our collaborative work with the Marine Mammal Research Program at UH Manoa Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (Martin Van Aswegen and Lars Bejder), the research team at Pacific Whale Foundation (Jens Currie and Stephanie Stack), University of Alaska Fairbanks (Shannon Atkinson), Hawaii Pacific University (Kristi West), and Alaska Whale Foundation (Andy Szabo) was nominated for a Suncoast Regional Emmy Award. For those who haven't see the film yet, it is available at this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJYM9LnOrzQ
Mahalo Alexa, Sean, David and the rest of the team from PBS South Florida Series Changing Seas for producing an informative and beautiful documentary that highlights cutting edge humpback whale science!

Our stellar aerial survey team from The Dolphin Institue, UH Hilo Marine Mammal Laboratory, UH Manoa and HAMER on its quest to identify locations and counts of spinner dolphins and other cetaceans under an initiative by the Marine mammal Research Program of Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology to estimate abundances. All research carried out under NOAA Permit 21482.

Recently completed a very successful research project off Lanai, Maui and Hawaii island with my old Padawan Matthias, our trusty engineer Abel and our education coordinator Carissa Cabrera about the R/V Nautilus with OET and National Geographic Society studying spinner dolphin vocalization and communication using hydrophone arrays synchronized with video to allow us to determine the senders and receivers of information! We were joined by an amazing team studying sharks! We even did a live stream YouTube video which can be found here https://youtu.be/3QRrxikGEsg. All in all it was a highly productive, insightful and fun adventure with a great team of people. Mahalo nui loa.

https://www.tiktok.com//video/7146681362299325739/?_r=1&enable_clips=1&utm_campaign=clip_share

Ocean Exploration Trust on TikTok Dr. Adam Pack talks IDing and . (NOAA Permit 19655)

Aloha TDI supporters, I am happy to share with you the trailer of tomorrow's PBS documentary film featuring our collaborative research on humpback whale health across the entire migratory cycle featuring Dr. Adam A. Pack, TDI Co-founder and President and UH Hilo Professor and Founder and Director of the UH Hilo Marine Mammal Lab, Dr. Lars Bejder, Director of the Marine Mammal Research Program for the UH Manoa Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, UH Manoa Ph.D. student Martin Van Aswegen, Jens Currie and Stephanie Stack from the Pacific Whale Foundation, Dr. Andy Szabo of the Alaska Whale Foundation, Dr. Shannon Atkinson of University of Alaska, Fairbanks and Dr. Kristi West of Hawaii Pacific University.

Changing Seas | Humpback Health | Season 14 Scientists study the body size and health of humpback whales across their migratory cycle.

Aloha All,
I am happy to share with you the first of two trailers of two PBS documentary films that will air tomorrow, June 22, on our collaborative research on North Pacific humpback whales. The programs are featured in the 2022 PBS South Florida Series "Changing Seas." The first film focuses on the 2014-2017 unprecedented North Pacific marine heatwave and its impact on humpback whales in Hawaii and Alaska.

Changing Seas | Vanishing Whales | Season 14 Experts study declines in the number of humpbacks migrating between Alaska and Hawaiʻi.

Excited that a new PBS documentary with teams of humpback whale researchers from Hawaii and Alaska will feature our collaborative aerial survey research in which from the skies over the Maui Nui region, we obtain counts and locations of humpback whales that allow us to compare their densities and calf production to earlier years. Why is this important now? The film focuses on the stunning negative effects of the 2014-2017 unprecedented North Pacific marine heatwave that crashed several levels of the marine food chain leading to thin unhealthy humpbacks, strikingly fewer calves and less whales.visiting Hawaii during the breeding season! The film will first air on PBS June 22.

Our latest publication in the journal Marine Mammal Science on the relationship between vessel traffic and humpback whale mother calf movements away from their preferred near shore areas in NW Maui was just featured by Hakai Magazine and Popular Science!

Boat noise is driving humpback whale moms into deep, dangerous water Increased boat traffic in shallow water is driving humpback whale mothers and their calves farther out into the ocean.