Cameron is a PhD student studying the respiratory physiology of cetaceans, focused on applying novel technologies to quantify bioenergetics in free-ranging marine mammals. Cameron started as an undergraduate intern at MMRP in early 2022, assisting several MMRP lab members with projects. Cameron led his first project at MMRP in 2024, investigating the kinematics of humpback whale bubble-net feeding, eventually publishing this work in 2025 at the end of his undergraduate degree. Cameron followed this with publications on the respiratory mechanics of cetaceans, and the scaling of locomotor costs in humpback whales. Expanding from this foundation, Cameron’s PhD research seeks to establish non-invasive approaches to estimate energetic expenditure in dolphins and whales.
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Cameron Nemeth
Cameron's Research Aims
Cameron’s doctoral research aims to leverage novel technologies, along with our large humpback whale drone and tag dataset, to establish methods for non-invasively measuring energetic expenditure in cetaceans. His research will include collaboration with Dolphin Quest to validate these methods in managed care before eventually scaling them up to larger free-ranging species. This controlled setting will allow Cameron to investigate links between direct measurements of dolphin respiratory flow rates and respiratory parameters, which he will subsequently use to develop and apply non-invasive approaches for studying energetic expenditure in free-ranging cetaceans. Cameron’s specific research aims include:
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Investigating links between respiratory parameters and direct measures of respiratory flow rates in dolphins under managed care
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Identifying scaling patterns of respiratory mechanics across a broad size range of cetaceans, from small dolphins to the largest whales
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Applying these approaches to quantify fine-scale energetic expenditure in free-ranging marine mammals across diverse behavioral contexts
Biography
Cameron was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, where he grew up participating in water sports. His interest in the ocean did not arise until the last couple of semesters of his undergraduate psychology studies, which is when he applied to the University of Hawaii. Having nearly finished his undergraduate psychology degree at this point, Cameron decided to finish his psychology degree in the fall of 2021, and then he immediately started his undergraduate marine biology degree at the University of Hawaii weeks later. Over the next four years, Cameron spent a considerable amount of time developing his skills as a scientist at UH and MMRP, but outside of work he enjoys surfing, outrigger canoe paddling, freediving and hiking.