{"id":91754,"date":"2019-03-04T09:03:10","date_gmt":"2019-03-04T19:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=91754"},"modified":"2019-03-11T09:44:41","modified_gmt":"2019-03-11T19:44:41","slug":"noaa-uh-marine-mammal-expertise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2019\/03\/04\/noaa-uh-marine-mammal-expertise\/","title":{"rendered":"NOAA<\/abbr> highlights UH<\/abbr> marine mammal expertise"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"Researcher
Adam Pack preparing to measure the body size of a female humpback whale using underwater videogrammetry, a technique he developed together with Scott Spitz and Louis M. Herman at UH<\/abbr> Manoa (NOAA<\/abbr> Permit 1071).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Uncovering the mysteries of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s humpback whales and helping to better understand anthropogenic and climate change effects on marine mammals are just a couple of ways University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> researchers contribute to science and our community. UH<\/abbr> researchers were recently featured on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA<\/abbr>) Fisheries website for their scientific endeavors.<\/p>\n

Adam Pack<\/h2>\n

Adam Pack<\/strong><\/a>, professor of psychology and biology at UH<\/abbr> Hilo<\/a> and cofounder of the Listening Observatory for Hawaiian Ecosystems Bioacoustics Lab.<\/p>\n

Pack co-founded The Dolphin Institute<\/a>, a Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>-based non-profit organization, and is a cooperating faculty in UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s marine science graduate program. NOAA<\/abbr> said, “Pack has collaborated with NOAA<\/abbr> Fisheries for decades, providing valuable insight into the behavioral ecology and communication systems of humpback whales, Hawaiian spinner dolphins and other marine mammals, and to our understanding of dolphin sensory perception, cognition, and language abilities.”<\/p>\n

Lars Bejder<\/h2>\n
\"Researchers<\/a>
With colleague Jens Currie, Lars Bejder releases a drone to study humpback whales off Maui. (Photo credit: HIMB<\/abbr> Marine Mammal Research Program)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lars Bejder<\/strong><\/a>, director of the Marine Mammal Research Program<\/a> at UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Institute of Marine Biology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NOAA<\/abbr> said, “He has studied numerous species of cetaceans over his research career of 25 years, including Hawaiian spinner dolphins and how they\u2019re affected by dolphin tours and other human interactions. He has closely collaborated with both the NOAA<\/abbr> Fisheries Pacific Islands Regional Office and Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, as well as numerous other organizations, universities and individuals throughout Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> and the world.”<\/p>\n

Marc Lammers<\/h2>\n
\"Two
Equipped with video cameras, hand-held sonars, and audio recording systems, Adam Pack and Marc Lammers prepare to enter the water with a male humpback whale singer to measure its body size and the acoustic characteristics of its song.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Marc O. Lammers<\/strong><\/a>, UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa graduate and affiliate research faculty at UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Institute of Marine Biology and marine biology graduate program<\/a>, who helped to pioneer the acoustic monitoring of coral reefs.<\/p>\n

Lammers is currently the research coordinator of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary<\/a>, and founded the non-profit Oceanwide Science Institute<\/a>. He and Pack have collaborated on many projects including studying whether the acoustic characteristics of male humpback whale song are related to a singer\u2019s fitness and fertility. NOAA<\/abbr> said, “Lammers has played a pivotal role in advancing bioacoustic monitoring research within the Pacific Islands region and abroad.”<\/p>\n

Kristi West<\/h2>\n
\"People
Kristi West, left, and staff examine a deceased marine mammal in their necropsy lab. (Photo credit: Marine Mammal Stranding Lab)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kristi West<\/strong><\/a>, affiliate research faculty at UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Institute of Marine Biology.<\/p>\n

NOAA<\/abbr> said, “West\u2019s lab conducts postmortem cause-of-death investigations of stranded cetaceans throughout both the Hawaiian Islands and the greater Pacific Islands, including American Samoa, Guam and Saipan. These investigations involve necropsies (an autopsy of an animal) and the collection of extensive biological samples, which the group uses for research to better understand the biology, ecology and threats of the region\u2019s cetaceans.”<\/p>\n

For more about NOAA<\/abbr>\u2019s work in the Pacific Islands<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adam Pack, Lars Bejder and Marc Lammers were featured on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries website for their scientific endeavors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[598,53,936,937,14,9],"class_list":["post-91754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-faculty-recognition","tag-hawaii-institute-of-marine-biology","tag-marine-mammal-research-program","tag-marine-mammals","tag-uh-hilo","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91754"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92268,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91754\/revisions\/92268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}