Marc O. Lammers just became affiliate faculty at HIMB for his accomplishments in Cetacean acoustics. Marc is the founder of Oceanwide Science Institute at Makawao, Hawaii, and the science coordinator for the Humpback Whale Sanctuary in Maui.

He gave a talk at HIMB to share with the research community his current projects. Marc and his graduate student are investigating the population of spinner dolphins in Oahu, with the goal of identifying rest and feeding areas. He has also been collaborating with NOAA-PIRO to develop a new dolphin approach rule for 2018, which would restrict the distant tourist boats could approach dolphins.

For another project he and his student have been working the population of Humpback whales in Hawaii, which according to the media, seemed to be decreasing. Using acoustics, he was able to confirm the decrease of whales in both 2017 and 2016 years, when compared to 2015. To investigate the reasons, he is now studying the song units of Humpback whales, to find out if song units could be an indicator of fitness.

Congratulations Marc on the the new position!