August 2022 Kaua‘i Field Project

Posted on August 24, 2022

Melon-headed whale and calf, August 18, 2022

Cascadia Research Collective began an 8-10 day field project off Kaua’i starting on August 16th. This project is timed to occur prior to a Submarine Command Course (SCC). Their primary goal is to deploy LIMPET satellite tags on one or more species of odontocete cetaceans prior to the SCC, to be able to examine their behavior before, during, and after the SCC. This approach has been very successful in the past as a way of examining how different species respond to Navy training activities including mid-frequency active sonar. 

This will be the 14th year CRC has worked off Kaua’i, and their 19th field effort off the island. These efforts also contribute to our general understanding of what species of whales and dolphins use the area around Kaua’i and Ni’ihau, and photos obtained feed into photo-identification catalogs for many different species. Check out the project web page for updates through the duration of field work.

Short-finned pilot whale spyhopping, August 17, 2022