Green Giving Holiday Challenge
The holiday season is upon us. It is a time for generosity and thankfulness, which often takes the form of gift giving between our loved ones. However, this generous spirit can also lead to massive consumption and waste. Waste in the U.S. increases 25% between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. That means an additional 1…
Read More »Inspiring the Next Generation of Ocean Stewards
Dedicated to inspiring future ocean stewards, Pacific Whale Foundation has been engaging the Hawaii community with our Keiki Whalewatch program for over 30 years now, encouraging local schoolchildren to learn about our oceans by getting a closer look at whales and other marine animals, each participating onboard our floating classroom vessels, as well as customized…
Read More »Research in Australia 2018 Field Report
Our research team has finished up data collection from the 2018 field season, and what a season it was! Pacific Whale Foundation has been studying humpback whales in Hervey Bay for over 30 years, providing us with long-term sightings data in the form of our South Pacific Humpback Whale Catalogue. In 2018, we took over…
Read More »Whales divided: how adults and calves use Hervey Bay differently
If you go whalewatching in Hervey Bay after mid-September, you may notice that there is a calf in nearly every pod you see. Mothers with calves are typically the last to arrive in the bay, and they may be the group that benefits most from the shallow, protected waters near Fraser Island. Our research on…
Read More »The Elusive False Killer Whale
In 2013, Jens Currie came to Pacific Whale Foundation as a data analyst from Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans. With an ambition to explore more robust statistical methods of potential anthropogenic impacts on cetacean populations, Jens is now Senior Research Analyst. Here, he lends a helping hand for those of us that are new…
Read More »Going Plastic Free
We all contribute to the plastic waste problem, so we should all contribute to the solution. While recycling is a good thing to do, to truly tackle this problem we must reduce the amount of plastic we are creating in the first place. In this blog…
Pilot whale encounters 30 miles offshore
Our Research Team has begun surveying the deeper waters southwest of Maui as part of our new false killer whale study. The first day of research took us ~30 nautical miles off the coast of Maui in waters >2,500 feet. Although we didn’t see any false killer whales, we did have two encounters with short-finned…
Read More »New research study on false killer whales
The Research Team is excited to announce that we have started a new study on false killer whales! We started field work for this study in May 2018 and will survey the leeward waters surrounding the Maui 4-island region; up to 50 miles offshore. This brings us into deep waters (> 2,500 ft) where the…
Read More »What's it like to do a research internship at PWF?
On the first field day for our two summer interns, you could sense the excitement as we set out on our research vessel, Ocean Protector, to survey for dolphins. Pacific Whale Foundation Research Department offers internships that give individuals the opportunity to get hands on experience in collecting and analyzing field data on marine mammals….
Read More »Kaho'olawe Island Restoration
In February 2018 twelve Pacific Whale Foundation volunteers participated in a public access to one of Hawaii’s most sacred islands – Kaho’olawe. Kaho’olawe is believed to be the kino lau or manifestation of Kanaloa a sacred ground for the people of Hawaii to practice and embrace their culture. This island is known as the piko,…
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