Marine Megafauna

HIMB researchers study how sharks and cetaceans are distributed throughout Hawaiian and Pacific waters, and how environmental and human factors shape those patterns. Through visual and acoustic surveys, photo-identification, tagging, and statistical modeling, researchers estimate animal abundance, monitor trends over time, and identify critical habitats. These studies provide the foundation for understanding how megafauna populations are changing and for developing effective conservation and management strategies in an increasingly human-influenced ocean.

Assessing the health of marine mammals is essential for understanding how populations respond to environmental change. HIMB researchers use unoccupied aerial systems (drones) to collect high-resolution imagery that allows precise measurements of body length, width, and condition. Combined with population-scale energetics modeling, direct sampling from the animals, and by working with animals in human care, these projects reveal how factors such as food availability, disturbance, and ocean warming affect the energy budgets and overall fitness of individuals and populations. Together, these approaches provide powerful tools for evaluating resilience and predicting how marine megafauna may adapt or struggle in a changing ocean.

Understanding how marine mammals behave and communicate is central to effective conservation. HIMB scientists deploy animal-borne tags, passive acoustic recorders, and automated image-recognition tools to study the movements, sounds, and behavior of whales and monk seals. These technologies have revealed new monk seal vocalisations, how humpback whale calves feed, and many other insights we could never obtain from the side of a boat. By combining innovative technologies with ecological insight, researchers are advancing both our understanding of marine mammal behavior and what is needed to best conserve them.

In a groundbreaking "Sharks as Oceanographers" program, researchers at HIMB are using tagged sharks to collect oceanographic data. These tags, which are essentially small sensor packages, record information like water temperature, depth, and oxygen content as the sharks move through the ocean. The sharks, which often travel hundreds of miles and dive to depths of over 500 meters, provide a constant stream of information from areas of the ocean that are difficult and expensive for humans to access. This innovative approach turns these apex predators into a mobile network of data collectors, providing invaluable real-time insights into ocean circulation and environmental change.