Blog Posts

Written by MMRP alumna Brijonnay Madrigal We are excited to share a new publication in Royal Society Open Science , which describes the acoustic behavior of false killer whales from the endangered Main Hawaiian Islands insular population. This research encompasses one chapter of former MMRP Ph.D. student and current Scripps postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Brijonnay Madrigal's   dissertation . Authors: Brijonnay Madrigal , William Gough , Jens Currie , Lars Bejder , Augusta Holl

Written by Brijonnay Madrigal False killer whales (FKW) ( Pseudorca crassidens ) and short-finned pilot whales (SFPW) ( Globicephala macrorhynchus ) are resident, toothed whale species to the Hawaiian archipelago. In Hawaiʻi, they are colloquially referred to as ‘Blackfish’ as they are largely dark gray in color, often appearing all black. Both FKW and SFPW exhibit complex social structure which translates into complexity in their communication systems. These two species gen

Members of the MMRP and Pacific Whale Foundation spent the first half of November doing fieldwork off the coast of Lānaʻi. The primary goal of this fieldwork was to deploy Customized Animal Tracking Solutions (CATS) suction-cup tags  on false killer whales ( Pseudorca crassidens ) as part of Jens Currie ʻ dissertation research (read more about these tags and this project in last yearʻs Lānaʻi blog pos t!) Video made by Jens Currie featuring the tag deployment on a false kille

The first-ever tagging of a false killer whale with a CATs tag Breaking new ground in marine mammal research, we were able to complete the first-ever deployment of a Customized Animal Tracking Solutions( www.cats.is ; CATS)suction-cup video tag on an individual female false killer whale ( Pseudorca crassidens ) from the endangered main Hawaiian Islands Population.The tag remained on the animal for >12 hours and is a significant step forward in understanding more about the ene

Written by Gussie Hollers Members of the MMRP spent the last ten days working with the Pacific Whale Foundation off the coast of Lānaʻi. The primary goal of this fieldwork was to deploy Customized Animal Tracking Solutions (CATS) suction-cup tags on false killer whales ( Pseudorca crassidens ) as part of the dissertation project for new MMRP graduate student Jens Currie . With this data, Jens will be able to gather new insights into the foraging ecology of the endangered Mai