Hawaii marine mammal consortium field report-May 2005
Hawaii Marine Mammal Consortium. 2005. Hawaii marine mammal consortium field report-May 2005. Hawaii Marine Mammal Consortium. Kamuela, HI
HMMC's 2005 winter field season focused on humpback whale photo-ID and biopsy data collection as well as shore-based scans. Scans from Kawaihae Bay documented the peak of the humpback season, between February and March. Twenty scans resulted in 23.5 hrs of observations. HMMC’s 2005 SPLASH effort consisted of 257 hours of effort during 41 days on the water, with our survey tracks covering more than 892 nautical miles. We were surprised to encounter a group of 10 to 15 bottlenose dolphins on three occasions in February and March. In previous years we have rarely even sighted individual bottlenose dolphins, so a large group’s presence in the area seemed unusual. We sighted spinner dolphins with estimated group sizes ranging from 14 to 245 animals on 11 days between 8 January and 25 March. An entangled individual was observed with the group on our first few sightings. We found a group of about 600 melonheaded whales and obtained numerous identification photos and an audio recording of their vocalizations.
- Type
- Generic Document
- Authors
- Hawaii Marine Mammal Consortium
- Date of Issue
- 2005-05
- Publisher
- Hawaii Marine Mammal Consortium
- Units
- ALKA , PACN , PUHE , PUHO
- Keywords
- Abundance (Biodiversity), biopsy, Bottlenose dolphin (Tusiops truncatus), Cetacean, Distribution (Biodiversity), Hawaii Island, Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae), Kawaihae Bay, Kohola, Melonheaded whales (Peponocephala electra), Observations, odontocete, photo-identification, Presence (Biodiversity), spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris), SPLASH