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Aloha mai kakao and welcome it is now 12 noon Hawai'i time. We're pleased to have you join us for Every calf  

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counts: Hawaii's humpback whale mother and calf 
pairs in a time of changing climate webinar. This  

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series is hosted by the NOAA Office of National 
Marine Sanctuaries and is a way to learn about  

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some of the exploration, research and discoveries 
occurring in Sanctuaries. During this presentation  

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all attendees will be in listen only mode you are 
welcome to type questions for the presenter into  

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the questions box in the bottom of the control 
panel on the right hand side of your screen  

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this is the same area you can let us know about 
any technical issues you may be having. We will  

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be monitoring incoming questions and technical 
issues and we'll respond to them as soon as we can.  

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You will also see three PDF's provided by 
today's speaker in the handout section of  

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your control panel those handouts are 
available for you to view and download.  

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We are recording this session and will share 
the recording with registered participants via  

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email when it is available on the Office 
of National Marine Sanctuary's website.

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So I am Cindy Among-Serrao one of your 
hosts for this webinar. I am contracted  

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by the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation as 
the Hawai'i Island program coordinator for the  

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Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine 
Sanctuary. My fellow hosts for today is Ed Lyman,  

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the Natural Resource Specialist for the Hawaiian 
Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary  

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and Allen Tom, our Superintendent of Hawaiian 
Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. 

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We greatly appreciate any feedback you may 
have that will help us improve the experience.  

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So please take a few minutes to complete 
a short evaluation following this webinar.

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okay

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oh sorry went too fast at the slides.

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Okay so the Office of National Marine 
Sanctuaries serves as a trustee for a  

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network of underwater parks encompassing 
more than six hundred thousand square miles

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of marine and great lakes waters from Washington 
state to the Florida Keys and from Lake Huron  

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to American Samoa the network includes a 
system of 15 national marine sanctuaries  

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and Papahanamokuakea, Rose Atoll marine 
national monuments there is currently a proposed  

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Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary and so on 
the map you'll see all the different locations  

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and we are Hawaiian Islands Humpback 
Whale National Marine Sanctuary right here.

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So the NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries  

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is mandated to conduct research, monitoring, 
resource protection, education, outreach and  

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of course management of America's underwater 
treasures to preserve them for future generations.

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National marine sanctuaries are 
living classrooms where people can see  

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touch and learn about the 
nation's Great Lakes and ocean

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treasures. (apologies for 
the delay in the next thing)

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So the next year is very exciting as the 
national marine sanctuary system turns  

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50 on October 23, 2022. Please join us throughout 
the next year as we celebrate the history  

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accomplishments and beauty of these incredible 
underwater parks across the United States  

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and I submitted the link for you to learn more 
about the National Sanctuaries as well as the 50th  

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anniversary and I will talk to you more about the 
Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary  

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and that link was also put into the chat box 
as well. So the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale  

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National Marine Sanctuary was designated in 1992 
and is jointly managed between NOAA's Office  

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of National Marine Sanctuaries and the State of 
Hawai'i through the Division of Aquatic Resources.  

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More than half of the humpback whales in the 
North Pacific seasonally use the waters around  

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the Hawaiian islands as their principal 
breeding and calving wintering grounds.  

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The bottom is a left on the bottom left is a map 
of the Hawaiian islands and the areas outlined  

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and shaded are the sanctuary boundaries. The 
sanctuary includes areas around the islands  

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of Maui, Lanai and Moloka'i and parts 
of Oahu Kauai and Hawaii.  The sanctuary's  

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mission is to protect Hawaii' humpback whales 
and this extremely important habitat through  

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closely aligned education, research and resource 
protection efforts. The sanctuary works with the  

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community and our partners to reduce threats to 
humpback whales including through enforcement.

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And I will pass it now to Ed to 
introduce our speaker for today.

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Thank you Cindy. Aloha everyone. Well it 
is my esteemed pleasure to introduce  

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another great speaker and fellow scientist Dr. 
Rachel Cartwright, to our Ho'i Kohola: Welcome back  

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to humpback whales month of November events. 
Now Rachel became fascinated with whales here  

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off Maui in the early 1990s she took that 
fascination desire and received her PhD in  

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conservation biology and for the past 20 years 
has been studying humpback whales off of Maui  

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especially those mother calf pairs.  Now in 
2001 with the help of a group of naturalists  

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boat captains, friends, she established and became 
the lead researcher for the Keiki Kohola project  

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and with that goal of conducting research that 
focused specifically on ensuring the well-being  

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and protection of Maui's mothers and calves.
Okay back with a focus on the mothers and calves.  

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she's worked with her colleague Captain Amy 
Benima a local naturalist boat captains that  

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connection with the community there on their 
again their goals to maintain close ties with that  

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on water community. Now Rachel hails originally 
from Manchester in the north of England  city  

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famous for music and great football teams so 
you can you might get a hint of her accent there.  

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She's a faculty member for the California State 
University of  Channel Islands and after combining  

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teaching and research for many years Rachel 
now spends her winters in Hawai'i focusing on  

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the research, heads to Alaska in the summers where 
she works as a nationalist and a freelance writer.  

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And I've had the great honor of working alongside 
Dr. Rachel Cartwright for many years now and can  

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certainly attest to her passion helping the 
animals and as an example that someone mentioned  

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that Rachel and our team there at Keiki Kohola 
project have been a big part of our entanglement  

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response efforts so big kudos their big shout 
out to Rachel. Now I hope everyone will give  

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us a big Aloha to Dr. Rachel Cartwright who will 
speak to us on those humpback whales and mother  

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calves and the changes specifically climate 
change that might be affecting the animals  

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and her title her talk today every calf counts 
hawaii's humpback whale mother calf pairs in a  

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time of changing climate. So please please 
welcome Dr. Rachel Cartwright and I'll pass it  

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on to Rachel.  Thank you. Alight.  Hi Ed thanks 
for those kind words I really appreciate it.  

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It's making me sound very old can we 
establish I must have started this when I was  

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very young so anyway I just want to say thank 
you so much for the invitation to present the  

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work of our organization the Keiki Kohola projects 
it's very much a locally based  group we're all  

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 ex or current people who are working on 
the water and in the local community so I  

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really appreciate bringing that up and yeah 
we are always very very pleased when we can  

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help with Ed's efforts  in entanglement 
such a big part of what makes Maui such a  

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special place for whales is the fact that we can 
look after the whales so well in this area so  

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and again thank you so much the Sanctuary 
for the introduction I really appreciate it.  

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So okay with that I will  begin the presentation 
so hopefully you can see that right now okay

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oopsies okay so the presentation today that 
I put together is entitled "Every calf counts and  

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it's very much fits with the theme with the 
work that we're doing now I think it's it's  

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really interesting when you've been involved in a 
long-term project like this to see how it changes  

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and develops over time we've certainly gone 
from a very small focus as you'll see today to a  

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a very much larger issue that I think whales 
can fill in our current natural systems  

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and I'm hoping that I can explain that 
larger context to you today as part of  

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this presentation. So with that I'll 
 I'll just jump right in here and as I say  

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hopefully I'll be able to introduce 
you to the work we've been doing  

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and how we hope it will contribute to 
the larger health of our marine systems.   

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Okay so as I mentioned the Keiki Kohola project. 
Keiki Kohola means baby whale in Hawaiian or young  

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whale and our little group was founded back 
in 2000 I think 1999-2000 we got going as a 501c3  

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we are very much a locally based group though 
and we all got together with a really clear  

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intent to provide management based information to 
do research that address key management issues so  

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that we could help and support the work of the 
Sanctuary. So it's especially welcome when  

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we get this chance to present our work in this 
in this context and and to you today and  to  

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the Sanctuary as well so we really wanted to do 
that management-based applied research that could  

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really address current issues and concerns we 
have around the health and protection well-being  

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of humpback whales mothers and calves when they come 
to Hawaiian waters.  And this first picture here I  

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always really enjoy this picture it just shows 
that connection between the whales and the place  

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as Cindy mentioned over 50 percent of the whales from 
across the North Pacific head to the waters of  

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Hawai'i each winter and and populate these waters 
in a way that I haven't seen anywhere else in the  

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world and I think I'm probably speaking to a lot 
of the converted when I say there's no no feeling  

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quite like that this surface dive in the water 
in the in the winter time when you hear the whale  

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sound and echoing underwater and just remind you 
what a truly special and unique place now he is  

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and the Hawaiian Islands in general is a sanctuary 
for humpback whales. So as I say this picture  

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I've always felt there's a great connection 
between the place and the whales that come  

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here.  I did want to introduce our team because 
while I'm the one here chatting away today

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we have a great team and that we all 
feel fill different roles in this team  

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and I  think our diversity is our strength 
let's say that so this is myself and  

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my  co-investigator here Amy Venema and 
the two of us have been involved in this  

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project since it's it's since its beginning 
and Amy is very much the local coordinator  

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the the person with all the on water experience 
that she brings to the project is invaluable and  

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Amy drives whale watching boats
and and she's the main captain at Ultimate  

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Whale Watch which shout out to Lee James the owner 
there who gives a great deal of support to our  

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projects and Amy you couldn't wish for a better 
boat watching captain. So do consider that if  

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you're heading out or if you're coming over to 
Maui or heading out on the water this year that's  

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a great way to go. Rob Hawes the gentleman 
right next to Amy and I right there joined our  

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project right from the get-go. He's a graphic 
designer in fact but he provided a lot of the  

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sort of business acumen that was lacking between 
Amy and I. So Rob has been helpful throughout  

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our throughout our time in making sure we stay on 
the good path and he's part of our Board and  

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helps with our decisions if you're looking for 
Rob you'll find him now on the web as Tiki Rob  

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and he is an artist and makes Tiki mugs 
absolutely beautiful so take a look on instagram  

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if you need some Christmas presents those 
are a perfect choice.  John and Dan Cessory,  

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the Cessory brothers and they provide beautiful 
underwater photography I'll be showing here today  

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mainly been in the project for 15 years now.  Amy is 
sorry Vanessa there is one of our main captains  

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who comes out and helps us on the water and Stacy 
Worthington the the blonde lady right there she  

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is a bit of a maestro with UAV's and so as we 
expanded our work into aerial monitoring  

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and photogrammetry.  Stacy's been able to guide us 
along with that and at the bottom there you see  

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our little boat, it's just a small research boat 
but it's been a platform from which we've been  

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able to do hopefully some very useful work so 
and the official name of the boat is Miss Emily  

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but we always go as Trophy Research on the water 
because it says "Trophy" right down the side of the  

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boat and it just is just how we got got to be 
known on the water so that's something so that's  

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our little boat right there.  Okay as Ed 
mentioned in the introduction I've actually been  

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a faculty member back at Cal State Channel Islands. 
California State University Channel Islands, its in 

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in Camarillo, California and I worked there for 
around 15 years teaching biology and biostatistics  

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and just environmentally based biology classes as 
part of that we were able to include a lot of the  

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research that I was involved in on Maui we ran 
some specific courses on aerial photogrammetry  

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and we've got students to Maui and here you can 
see they're thoroughly excited by this opportunity  

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to get to go to Maui.  They come out with us on the 
boats there we are within the Aloha Kai which is  

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so generously donated to the project for our 
youth when we have students in town by Lee James  

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with Ultimate Whale Watch and and the students 
are involved in all aspects of the research so  

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they get a real good feel for what's involved 
in the project like this as well as contributing  

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 to the work that we're doing and just I
think we can safely say that the students for the  

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students for undergraduate students getting this 
kind of immersive experience is invaluable and you  

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really see it shape their outlook and their career 
choices so we're looking forward to welcoming the  

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next group of students in January and it really 
is one of the most rewarding aspects of the work  

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we're doing just seeing that next generation 
hopefully of environment environmentally  

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based biologists finding their feet in the 
field is thoroughly rewarding has to be said.  

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Okay so and as Ed mentioned I'm eventually from 
the north of England so one might wonder what  

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how on earth I ended up in Hawai'i studying 
whales.  Manchester where I come from it's quite an  

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industrial city and probably like many people 
listening in today I first came across whales in  

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Alaska.  I had accompanied a friend on a backpacking 
a backpacking trip up there and we were on a ferry  

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 just sailing into Juneau.  I'm sure quite a 
few people listening might know that exact spot  

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we're heading heading up the Gastineau Channel
towards Juneau.  I saw a whale off in the off against  

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the shoreline and we were we're on one of those 
really old state ferries where you can sleep  

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outside if you're really short of money and so it 
was about four in the morning or so but of course  

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it's Alaska so it's light and I was so excited 
when I saw this whale that I thought I should  

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definitely let everybody know and not everyone 
appreciated it of course because if you live in  

00:17:00.240 --> 00:17:05.200
Alaska you see a lot of whales so but it was my 
moment my moment of seeing whales in the wild  

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and it was just this feeling of wilderness that 
was truly captivating.  On the rest of our trip  

00:17:10.320 --> 00:17:15.920
around  Alaska I soon realized that whales 
were right at the heart of the ecosystem there  

00:17:15.920 --> 00:17:20.800
and we were lucky enough to see just in that 
first trip to see whales feeding in Alaska and  

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that's definitely a memory I'll I'll carry 
with me and so at the end of the summer  

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in the last year as it started to get cold I 
heard that these whales headed down to Hawai'i  

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on their migration and that seemed like a really 
good idea at September in Alaska so I came  

00:17:38.880 --> 00:17:44.880
down here to Hawaii got a job on the water and 
from there got really interested in whales. So  

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hopefully what I the reason I like to mention 
this is so that for those of you who are listening  

00:17:51.200 --> 00:17:55.600
who are wondering how to get started in a career 
on the water or working with marine mammals  

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field experience is a fantastic way to start 
and for local people on Maui you know you  

00:18:03.120 --> 00:18:07.040
can get involved in this and make difference and 
make it and you know contribute to the work that's  

00:18:07.040 --> 00:18:11.360
ongoing so if that's something you're interested 
in you'll see my contacts at the end and if I can  

00:18:11.360 --> 00:18:16.800
help you at all be moving forward on that we 
just let me know. So I followed the whales from  

00:18:16.800 --> 00:18:23.360
from Alaska down to Hawaii and of course meeting 
whales in Hawaii is captivating in an entirely  

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different way for some reason right from 
the get-go working on the water I was drawn  

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to mother and calf pairs and of course  
you know the waters of Maui are really  

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a center for those groups some 85 percent of 
the mothers and calves that are moving through  

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Hawaiian waters will come through the waters 
right there off of West Maui and the Auau channel so  

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and it was a great place to get into this research 
and so in terms of the research I'll be talking  

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about today I'll start by just reviewing a 
little bit of what we found out during our

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research.  You know we've taken the Keiki Kohola
project some of our findings then I'll  

00:19:00.320 --> 00:19:07.040
be talking about some of the urban legends I'd 
like to address and a little bit of background  

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information maybe to help some of the naturalists 
who are heading out on the water to guide our  

00:19:10.960 --> 00:19:16.320
watching trips this year and then finally I'll 
be talking about our new findings and how I think  

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they may fit into the role of our the health 
of our larger ecosystems and the role that whales  

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may take in future years as we as we head 
into this time with a truly changing climate and  

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a challenging time for sure. So that's the basic 
outline of the talk of the presentation today. 

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So one of the things you'll first notice 
when you're out on the water around about  

00:19:40.880 --> 00:19:47.200
around humpback world calves is the great deal 
of variation that we see in them essentially  

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from watching over the years we estimate that the 
calves are staying on our waters not very long at  

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all maybe somewhere from four to six weeks and 
during this period they go through such a a fast  

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rate of such a fast and varied amount of 
development this physiological development is  

00:20:06.240 --> 00:20:12.400
morphological development they're developing  
motor skills swimming skills at the same time as  

00:20:12.400 --> 00:20:16.400
growing and increasing your girth so they're 
going to be able to make this massive amount of  

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migration that's ahead of them some 3000 miles 
 three thousand kilometers twenty five hundred  

00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:25.600
miles up to their feeding areas around the North 
Pacific and they're gonna start on that migration  

00:20:25.600 --> 00:20:31.200
probably at four to six years four to six weeks 
old so it's a really key and important time this  

00:20:31.200 --> 00:20:36.880
early development that they go through on 
Maui what we noticed pretty soon is there's a  

00:20:36.880 --> 00:20:44.640
great deal of variation we were able to find a 
way of working out that that was age-based the way  

00:20:44.640 --> 00:20:51.120
we do this we still use this method now initially 
what we used is a photo of the dorsal fin when  

00:20:51.120 --> 00:20:56.000
the calf 's in utero that dorsal fins flat
right right over the top of the dorsal then

00:20:56.720 --> 00:21:02.480
the calf could pull actually a neutral as well 
like this way and that way and so the dorsal fin  

00:21:02.480 --> 00:21:09.440
lies flat and  once the calf is born that dorsal 
fin rises up quite uniformly. What we were  

00:21:09.440 --> 00:21:16.640
able to do is document that and photograph it 
and measure measure that angle on a photoshop very  

00:21:16.640 --> 00:21:22.240
 precisely. We found that it matched breath
hold capacity which we know just an age-based  

00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:26.320
indicator and we realized at that point that 
we had a little key that we could really start  

00:21:26.320 --> 00:21:32.000
to age the calves that we were seeing at that time 
and by splitting them up by age then we were able  

00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:39.280
to identify very specific developmental stages 
that they go through that as the calf matures  

00:21:39.840 --> 00:21:44.720
and what we found with the younger calves 
is that they spend most of their time

00:21:44.720 --> 00:21:51.120
actively swimming.  So the red bar that you can see 
on the graph right here is the portion of the  

00:21:51.120 --> 00:21:57.200
time budget they spend actively traveling and they 
really do spend maybe you know usually over 90 percent

00:21:57.200 --> 00:22:03.120
of their time is spent in active travel so 
swimming along by mom and moving over and on to  

00:22:03.120 --> 00:22:10.000
the top of her at times so it is assisted swimming 
in some in some cases and interestingly enough  

00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:15.120
there's an awful lot of activity that comes in 
early you'll see young calves. If you're out on Maui  

00:22:15.120 --> 00:22:19.440
if you've been out with us I'm sure you'll see 
you'll often see those young calves flapping their

00:22:19.440 --> 00:22:26.400
dorsal fins sorry flapping pectoral fins and 
doing lots of tail slaps and then often you'll see  

00:22:26.400 --> 00:22:31.680
them going into these breaching activities where 
they'll reach not once but multiple times in a row.  

00:22:32.400 --> 00:22:37.440
Now this was always a real conundrum to me because 
having trained in England was a bit of a classical  

00:22:37.440 --> 00:22:44.080
sort of ecology idea that you know costs and 
benefits energetically are always going to  

00:22:44.080 --> 00:22:50.000
always go into balance if you see an animal 
using energy and that therefore would be a  

00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:55.440
costly activity therefore there should be a 
benefit associated with it so watching these  

00:22:55.440 --> 00:23:00.960
calves breach and breach and breach, clearly extending a 
lot of energy there's a bit of a conundrum because  

00:23:00.960 --> 00:23:06.240
we know that the mother has swum away from 
Alaska while pregnant she's given birth somewhere  

00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:13.520
in and around Maui waters we believe and she's 
produced this you know substantially sized baby  

00:23:13.520 --> 00:23:18.320
and she is not feeding, she's fasting the whole 
time so we know that our females are always on a  

00:23:18.320 --> 00:23:23.200
very tight energy budget especially the maternal 
females raising the calf on a very very tight  

00:23:23.200 --> 00:23:28.720
energy budget so to see the calf and using that 
energy up we thought there must be an explanation.  

00:23:29.440 --> 00:23:34.080
So what we were able to do is really put this 
together and working with a cell a cell  

00:23:34.080 --> 00:23:40.240
biologists back at Cal State we really were able 
to build up a story and get to understand what was  

00:23:40.240 --> 00:23:46.720
going on and in fact this high level of activity 
seems to have a real function and one of the key  

00:23:46.720 --> 00:23:52.400
things that the calf has to build up is the ability 
to hold its breathe and when the calf dives down   

00:23:53.840 --> 00:23:59.360
obviously it's got to you've got to maintain a 
sufficient supply of oxygen.  Now one of the ways  

00:23:59.360 --> 00:24:05.200
adults do that they have something called myosin 
in the tissues myoglobin is to muscle tissue  

00:24:05.200 --> 00:24:11.360
what  hemoglobin is to blood it's an oxygen 
carrier and adults have around 16 milligrams of  

00:24:11.360 --> 00:24:19.040
myoglobin per gram of tissue but when we you when 
we looked at the muscle tissue of calves calves  

00:24:19.040 --> 00:24:27.680
that were all obtained during strandings  and 
then sampled you know as the calf was examined  

00:24:27.680 --> 00:24:31.920
this was in association with Kristi West 
over at University of Hawai'i, she was really  

00:24:31.920 --> 00:24:37.280
helpful and Jim Rice was super helpful too over 
there at University of Oregon supplying us with  

00:24:37.280 --> 00:24:42.800
these tissues and what we found was our humpback whale calves had very little myoglobin.  This one on  

00:24:42.800 --> 00:24:46.960
the right here is actually controlled this is 
harbor porpoise but these two here you can see  

00:24:46.960 --> 00:24:53.200
there's barely any red coloration to it what we 
found was exceptionally low levels of myoglobin in  

00:24:53.200 --> 00:25:00.160
our humpback whale calves and it turns out however 
that exercise produces calcium in the muscles just  

00:25:00.160 --> 00:25:06.160
the right type to trigger a biochemical cascading 
reaction that ends up with myoglobin being  

00:25:06.160 --> 00:25:11.680
produced right there in the muscles the myoglobin 
then can be used as an oxygen storage allowing  

00:25:11.680 --> 00:25:16.160
the calf once it's exercised and produce that 
myoglobin and got things going it's going to be able  

00:25:16.160 --> 00:25:20.400
to grab hold so there is a real benefit so when 
you see that calf breaching and breaching breaching  

00:25:20.400 --> 00:25:24.160
over and over again it turns out there is 
definitely a benefit for that increased  

00:25:24.160 --> 00:25:28.480
breath hold capacity is going to make swimming more 
energetically efficient and it's also going to  

00:25:28.480 --> 00:25:35.440
allow the calf to rest the resting periods come as 
the calf mature and in Maui waters at least  

00:25:35.440 --> 00:25:40.560
we found they spend about 60 percent of their time resting 
once they're in that second phase so these parts  

00:25:40.560 --> 00:25:45.760
are about maybe three weeks old and you'll see 
very typically the mum will go down and the calf

00:25:45.760 --> 00:25:50.880
will go down rest and then come up and do a little 
circle and dive back down to her and that's a very  

00:25:50.880 --> 00:25:56.480
typical activity in a more mature calf and that has 
a breath-hold capacity that they can stay down for a  

00:25:56.480 --> 00:26:02.080
little while and also that maturity seems to 
give the mom a little bit more confidence to let  

00:26:02.080 --> 00:26:08.400
the calf  head to the surface by itself safely 
as well so that separation in this stable circling  

00:26:08.400 --> 00:26:16.880
class are our older calves about 60 percent of their time 50 
60 percent of their time is is  spent at rest  

00:26:16.880 --> 00:26:22.080
and it's during those rest periods that we think 
that they grow and we're working on this with the  

00:26:22.080 --> 00:26:29.360
photography that we're doing but it's it it makes 
sense that  growth will be prioritized during a  

00:26:29.360 --> 00:26:35.120
period of rest because the the metabolic rate will 
drop a little bit all the resources can be powered  

00:26:35.120 --> 00:26:39.600
into growth and if you have if you're raising 
little ones you'll know for sure that you know 

00:26:39.600 --> 00:26:45.840
it's while kids are resting that they tend to grow 
growth and rest go hand in hand so  that second  

00:26:45.840 --> 00:26:51.520
phase may be really really important to maintain 
the high levels of growth that we see in calves in Hawai'i. 

00:26:51.520 --> 00:26:57.200
What are those levels of growth current estimates 
are about 30 centimeters a month so  yeah that's  

00:26:57.200 --> 00:27:04.640
a lot 28 kilograms a day maybe in terms of  
being mass as well so growth is extreme and we  

00:27:04.640 --> 00:27:09.440
do think most of it most of the girthiness 
as well is increasing in that second areas.  

00:27:10.800 --> 00:27:16.400
So maternal energy stores have to supply 
both the mother and calf during the time in Hawai'i  

00:27:16.400 --> 00:27:19.840
essentially the calves can get all the 
resources they need through lactation  

00:27:20.640 --> 00:27:26.000
and you know nursing with the mom and she is going 
to metabolize her energy resources to provide that  

00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:32.320
milk for the calf. Now this is one of those urban legends 
I mentioned we want to to address because I'm sure  

00:27:32.320 --> 00:27:38.640
if i was to ask what have you read in terms of 
how many gallons of milk a month produces a day  

00:27:38.640 --> 00:27:43.840
 there are some crazy numbers out there and 
it's it's a quick google search you might even  

00:27:43.840 --> 00:27:50.640
find estimates up to 100 gallons a day and that's 
something that just never made any sense to me  

00:27:50.640 --> 00:27:55.600
so and certainly some time ago now we put some 
numbers into that I just want to share those  

00:27:55.600 --> 00:28:00.720
with you so we clarify this so what we wanted to 
work out is how much milk does a humpback whale calf consume

00:28:00.720 --> 00:28:08.640
to give us a starting place to work out 
this milking within the mums and we can  

00:28:08.640 --> 00:28:13.280
start this by thinking about the calories in the 
milk and this is pretty interesting to dive into  

00:28:13.280 --> 00:28:19.760
what we're actually using here is an awful lot 
of whaling data actually really old data  

00:28:19.760 --> 00:28:24.960
can provide some interesting and useful background 
details so as you see it's a paper in 1946 by  

00:28:24.960 --> 00:28:32.560
Tomlin who actually calculated the calorific value 
of milk he looked at fins and blue whales we  

00:28:32.560 --> 00:28:37.680
had to recalculate that based on the fact that 
humpback whale is probably about 20 percent fat  

00:28:37.680 --> 00:28:43.120
while in the nursery areas according to Octgall's 
work another guy working with a lot of whaling  

00:28:43.120 --> 00:28:50.240
data the amount of fat increases over the first 
six months of the calves life which kind of makes  

00:28:50.240 --> 00:28:55.600
sense so that when the mom is actually back on the 
feeding ground and still lactating the amount  

00:28:55.600 --> 00:29:01.520
of the amount of fat in the milk actually 
increases just a little bit so in the early stages  

00:29:01.520 --> 00:29:08.240
on Maui based on the work of Tomlin and Octagall
we can say it's about 20 percent fat we use Tomlins  

00:29:09.040 --> 00:29:17.200
calorific values based on blue and fin whale milk 
and we can get that to about 2 624 that's a  

00:29:17.200 --> 00:29:22.240
little accurate over accurate isn't it of course 
but that's a ballpark for the calorific value of  

00:29:22.240 --> 00:29:27.760
the milk then we have to think what the calves 
are using it for basically metabolism activity  

00:29:27.760 --> 00:29:33.680
and growth of the 3 key activities and so 
let's look at the first one there metabolism  

00:29:33.680 --> 00:29:42.320
again using some there it is using some whaling 
data that dates back to this is Lockyears data  

00:29:42.320 --> 00:29:49.200
 it's been estimated that calf weigh in around 
1200 kilometers at 1200 kilograms of birth  

00:29:49.760 --> 00:29:55.360
and they grow around 28 kilograms per day 
so a three week old calf would weigh in  

00:29:55.360 --> 00:30:03.600
around about 17 1 700-1 800 kilograms there's 
an equation called cubist cleavers Fire of Light  

00:30:03.600 --> 00:30:10.560
that we use for working out the metabolic rate 
based on the body mass it's a very standard one  

00:30:10.560 --> 00:30:15.760
and then it's generally agreed that in mature 
animals metabolism runs about twice as fast as an  

00:30:15.760 --> 00:30:22.000
adult so we'll put all that together and we 
come up with a kilocalorie count for the calf  

00:30:22.560 --> 00:30:27.200
in terms of its basal metabolic rate 
now remember it hasn't gone anywhere yet  

00:30:28.320 --> 00:30:34.320
when we add swimming and some breaching 
activity in there too we know that the three  

00:30:34.320 --> 00:30:39.280
week old calf is going to be about 60 40 in terms 
of that time budget based on our work we know the  

00:30:39.280 --> 00:30:45.840
speed of travel and put all that together in 
equations that were derived by a very experienced  

00:30:46.960 --> 00:30:52.960
energetic biologist Terry Williams at U.C. Santa 
Cruz and we used her equations and then we added  

00:30:52.960 --> 00:30:59.280
on a few breaches that actually Dr White had 
Paul White had one of the most famous researchers  

00:30:59.280 --> 00:31:04.480
in sperm whales he he was doing something about 
humpback whale stuff in his early days and calculated the  

00:31:04.480 --> 00:31:09.760
the cost of breaches to put all that together we 
can work out how many calories the calf needed a  

00:31:09.760 --> 00:31:18.080
day for activity. For growth as I mentioned when 
we're looking at growth rates in these calves  

00:31:18.080 --> 00:31:22.960
it does come out to about 28 kilograms a 
day that was calculated first by Lockyear 

00:31:22.960 --> 00:31:31.120
in 1976 and then also by Breakaway in 2016 so 
you know more an estimate based on whaling 

00:31:31.120 --> 00:31:37.440
data and more recent estimate too.  They all 
came out around with about 28 kilograms a day  

00:31:37.440 --> 00:31:43.280
in terms of weight increase for the calf certainly 
substantial and and then we know the value  

00:31:43.280 --> 00:31:48.640
of the calorific value of whale meat from 
whaling days again so we can put that together  

00:31:49.760 --> 00:31:54.560
figure out how many calories we need for 
growth and finally put all that together  

00:31:54.560 --> 00:32:02.080
for a total of around about as you can see 100 
000 calories or more needed for growth metabolism  

00:32:02.080 --> 00:32:07.680
metabolism and activity we also have to figure 
in a little bit of spill you know a little bit  

00:32:07.680 --> 00:32:15.040
of spilt milk is lightly and a little cost of 
ingestion ingestion all this comes together to  

00:32:15.040 --> 00:32:19.840
give us this value here this is the calories 
required for our three week old calf. Now I'm  

00:32:19.840 --> 00:32:24.560
sure you're getting you know a little over all the 
figures by now but bear with me you put all this  

00:32:24.560 --> 00:32:31.280
together and we come up with a number it might be 
surprising it really seems that calves are only  

00:32:31.280 --> 00:32:38.320
going to need about 12 gallons of milk a day to 
support their metabolism growth and activity so  

00:32:38.880 --> 00:32:45.520
we are reckoning somewhere between 12 and maybe 
tops 14 gallons a day is the likely requirement  

00:32:45.520 --> 00:32:51.680
in terms of milk for our calves on Maui and this 
actually fits in quite well because Christina  

00:32:51.680 --> 00:32:56.800
Lockyear looking at whaling data came up with 
an estimate of 18 gallons of milk a day being  

00:32:56.800 --> 00:33:02.960
the most that a whale could a female well could 
provide daily and still have the resources to  

00:33:02.960 --> 00:33:08.880
get back to the feeding areas and 
make that trip successfully and breathe weight  

00:33:08.880 --> 00:33:15.360
we confirmed that as well and she also using 
some really complex conservation energetics  

00:33:15.360 --> 00:33:21.520
came up with came with in complete agreement 
with that. So Fin whales are larger of course  

00:33:21.520 --> 00:33:27.040
than humpback whales so scaling down a little 
from there is not surprising so that's our number  

00:33:27.040 --> 00:33:31.200
and I'd be very interested to get any feedback 
on that but it certainly does seem that it's  

00:33:31.200 --> 00:33:38.480
around about 12 around about 12 gallons  and 
it's just released  you know we've seen it a  

00:33:38.480 --> 00:33:43.280
couple of times in the water but not too often 
so and the delivery of that milk is something  

00:33:43.280 --> 00:33:50.720
probably that we are not so sure of yet yet 
we just generally see her we do see streams  

00:33:50.720 --> 00:33:56.000
of milk in the water occasionally it's like 
 sort of heavy cottage cheese or something  

00:33:56.000 --> 00:34:01.360
very very occasionally you'll see these strings 
of milk in the water the calf comes up nudges on  

00:34:01.360 --> 00:34:08.320
the genital slit and and connects there and the 
milk is delivered in a very very efficient way  

00:34:08.320 --> 00:34:14.640
very little seen in the water as I say just some 
small amounts on occasion so yeah so nursing is  

00:34:14.640 --> 00:34:19.520
an interesting one in terms of seeing nursing 
very rare very rare that we see nursing when  

00:34:19.520 --> 00:34:25.840
we're in the water with whales and I think the 
work that's being done by UH with tags on calves

00:34:25.840 --> 00:34:30.320
is certainly going to be the work that reveals 
a little bit more about the nursing dynamics of  

00:34:30.320 --> 00:34:37.040
our calves so we'll go back to that in a few minutes. 
 So as we started to establish our work on Maui  

00:34:37.040 --> 00:34:41.280
one of the things we also wanted to address was 
the idea that mums and calves are predominantly  

00:34:41.280 --> 00:34:46.320
in shallow waters and when we were working out on 
the water that wasn't what we saw whether we were  

00:34:46.320 --> 00:34:52.320
working or and involved in research we saw mum's 
and calves right across the entire channel so  

00:34:52.320 --> 00:34:57.600
once we've done that early developmental work 
we moved on to look at habitat we were able  

00:34:57.600 --> 00:35:04.080
to really work out the favorite areas for mums 
and calves in our four you know in our sort  

00:35:04.080 --> 00:35:10.000
of West Maui waters so our aim was just to take a 
sample and get an idea of what depth the mums and  

00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:18.720
calves were at and certainly  this this work 
that we started off in 2008 we found one's in  

00:35:18.720 --> 00:35:27.120
about 40 to 60 meters of water so that's you know 
120 to 180 feet so that's much much deeper than  

00:35:27.120 --> 00:35:33.360
mums and mom and calve humpback whales pairs are found in other parts 
of the world so that was pretty interesting we  

00:35:33.360 --> 00:35:37.840
definitely found them about two to four kilometers 
offshore and again I think the Whale Foundation  

00:35:37.840 --> 00:35:43.760
and Stephanie Stacks have done some lovely 
work on this and I think they found quite similar  

00:35:43.760 --> 00:35:48.320
similar trends in terms of the favorite depth 
for our moms and calves so mums and calves may  

00:35:48.320 --> 00:35:53.200
be in shallow waters at times but those are 
not the only areas we find that this is really  

00:35:53.200 --> 00:35:56.800
important from the management perspective 
because you know when we look to where areas  

00:35:56.800 --> 00:36:00.800
we're going to protect and where are we going 
to focus our concern for the whales we've got to  

00:36:00.800 --> 00:36:05.680
realize that those moms and calves are right across 
the channels and not just in the shallower waters.

00:36:08.240 --> 00:36:13.440
So one of the one of the shortcomings of that 
research though was it was mostly concepted in the  

00:36:13.440 --> 00:36:18.080
second half of the season and that was just 
around my teaching commitments at the time  

00:36:18.080 --> 00:36:23.440
and so when I got a chance to come back on 
sabbatical to Hawai'i one of the things  

00:36:23.440 --> 00:36:29.680
I wanted to do was just to see whether there was 
any difference between early mid and late season  

00:36:29.680 --> 00:36:33.680
and it was one of those research projects that 
didn't heal very much because there was that  

00:36:33.680 --> 00:36:37.760
there was no there wasn't a lot of difference 
at all and we really didn't see a great deal of  

00:36:37.760 --> 00:36:44.240
difference we ran transects continually to keep 
a very sort of quantified approach to looking  

00:36:44.240 --> 00:36:50.560
at these seasonal trends and these these 
transects yielded encounter rates across the  

00:36:50.560 --> 00:36:56.960
lines of the grid that we've shown that I showed 
you right I showed on the slide just previously  

00:36:56.960 --> 00:37:01.920
and so we had rates for whales in general and mom 
and calf rates along that line at the time it didn't  

00:37:01.920 --> 00:37:08.000
seem really didn't seem too consequential we saw 
a nice increase in terms of our overall encounter  

00:37:08.000 --> 00:37:14.720
rate. We saw our numbers going up from 2008 to 
2014 as you can see that's pretty good trendline  

00:37:14.720 --> 00:37:20.480
we saw a little drop in 2014 but we've had 
such a big year in 2013 that it didn't seem  

00:37:20.480 --> 00:37:26.560
an issue at the time but of course you 
know hindsight is 20/20 isn't it.  By 2015  

00:37:26.560 --> 00:37:32.880
changing times we're coming to Maui I'm sure 
lots of you who are familiar with our 

00:37:32.880 --> 00:37:38.480
you know or whales in our community part of 
our you know whale watching and our whale research 

00:37:38.480 --> 00:37:43.920
community well aware of this.  We saw those first 
numbers dropping about 2015 as you can see here  

00:37:43.920 --> 00:37:48.240
you know the first headlines the first comments 
came in I believe you know Ed got some of the very  

00:37:48.240 --> 00:37:54.640
first calls then as the first go-to is to maybe he 
might have some insight as to what was happening.  

00:37:54.640 --> 00:38:00.080
 Through 2016 luckily you know we have 
lots of people focused on the whales in our  

00:38:00.720 --> 00:38:07.520
in Maui waters and so the whale count 
that was conducted by the Whale Foundation  

00:38:07.520 --> 00:38:12.240
was also looking at the number of whales 
right there in the Aoao channel and they  

00:38:12.880 --> 00:38:19.040
came up with similar numbers they were seeing a 
drop in numbers between 2015 and 2016. So as we  

00:38:19.040 --> 00:38:25.440
got into 2016 we saw that this wasn't just a blip 
it was maybe over a couple of years at that point  

00:38:26.320 --> 00:38:31.040
we were able to pull out those surveys that 
we did and those surveys that didn't yield  

00:38:31.040 --> 00:38:35.840
a great deal of new research at the time 
we were able to go back and revisit and  

00:38:35.840 --> 00:38:43.520
so we repeated the protocol we used very 
precisely in 2017 and 2018 we did seasonal  

00:38:44.400 --> 00:38:49.280
seasonal surveys in exactly the same time 
windows running exactly the same transact lines  

00:38:50.240 --> 00:38:57.520
so that we could see how the numbers were changing 
between 2013 and 14 and 2017 and 2018. and as you  

00:38:57.520 --> 00:39:04.160
can see you know our survey was very focused 
on you know we're on the West side sorry we're  

00:39:04.160 --> 00:39:09.680
on the East side of the Aoao channel just off 
of West Maui and we're going up as far as 

00:39:10.640 --> 00:39:16.560
as Mala and as far south as just south of 
Oluwalu so we're really looking in that  

00:39:16.560 --> 00:39:23.600
focal area we're not a larger survey but even in 
that area we saw really quite dramatic declines  

00:39:23.600 --> 00:39:33.520
between  between and 2013-14 and between 
compared to 2017-18 overall our encounter rates 

00:39:33.520 --> 00:39:40.480
were dramatically down you know we saw an almost 
an 80 percent decline in those two and two-year  

00:39:40.480 --> 00:39:48.240
periods and adults and adults in that area we saw 
a  the trend was the same but it wasn't quite  

00:39:48.240 --> 00:39:54.400
as pronounced and I know that Anke Kruger done 
some great work now with monitoring underwater  

00:39:54.400 --> 00:39:59.760
and using acoustics and I believe that she found 
very similar trends too so we all saw that saying  

00:39:59.760 --> 00:40:05.120
drop in numbers and of course to see a drop 
so dramatic in numbers was quite a concern.  

00:40:05.760 --> 00:40:11.680
 Looking into it though you know we had 
a workshop with the  all the researchers  

00:40:11.680 --> 00:40:17.520
 gathered together in Honolulu to talk about 
what's happening in the North Pacific in general  

00:40:17.520 --> 00:40:23.920
and although there were lots of lots of possible 
explanations to consider what happened was  

00:40:23.920 --> 00:40:28.880
generally the whale watching community seemed to 
hone in around this idea that it was really the  

00:40:28.880 --> 00:40:33.520
conditions in the North Pacific the warming of 
the North Pacific we had The Blob which caused  

00:40:34.240 --> 00:40:39.520
local warming in the waters off of Southern 
California originally and then that moved up  

00:40:39.520 --> 00:40:47.120
to the waters off of Alaska and then it was 
compounded by a a flip in the Pacific decadal

00:40:47.120 --> 00:40:51.760
oscillation which is an underlying current which 
can lead to warmer waters and then an El Nino on  

00:40:51.760 --> 00:40:57.920
top with really warm waters what happens is 
those warm waters will cap the upwellings  

00:40:57.920 --> 00:41:03.360
in the areas where the whales normally feed and 
so the nutrients aren't circulating the same way  

00:41:03.360 --> 00:41:09.600
the productivity drops and because the water's 
warm the phytoplankton will adapt so the  

00:41:09.600 --> 00:41:14.000
phytoplankton free floating they will move to 
the water that's their normal preference and they  

00:41:14.000 --> 00:41:21.440
will be replaced in this case being phytoplankton 
from from further south unfortunately those   

00:41:21.440 --> 00:41:26.560
replacing phytoplankton didn't have the calorific 
value of the ones that left the area because  

00:41:26.560 --> 00:41:32.640
it was too warm and the food chain really just 
sort of rolled in on itself and lots and lots  

00:41:32.640 --> 00:41:39.840
of impacts were seen we saw impacts in seabirds 
we saw algal bloom in other areas we saw  

00:41:40.800 --> 00:41:46.880
real crashes in some of the fishing stocks and 
the food that we think supports our whale stocks  

00:41:46.880 --> 00:41:54.320
is what disappeared for the humpback whales. 
This is not an isolated incident unfortunately  

00:41:54.320 --> 00:42:01.200
this is being reported in quite a few different 
places now we are starting to see this   

00:42:01.200 --> 00:42:07.440
this trend towards lower lower reproductive rates 
and it seems to be quite possibly related to   

00:42:08.720 --> 00:42:13.760
to feeding and to nutritional stress there is 
a direct line between the physiological health  

00:42:13.760 --> 00:42:18.320
of the female and the likelihood that she's 
going to go into a reproductive cycle so these  

00:42:18.320 --> 00:42:25.360
declines that are seen in so many other places are 
likely indicative of about the same thing.  

00:42:25.920 --> 00:42:31.200
Okay.  Glacier Bay was one of the places was still 
the most pronounced decline and in 2016 they had  

00:42:31.200 --> 00:42:36.080
no calves seen.  You see you can see here they 
normally see between 12 and 20 calves in those  

00:42:36.080 --> 00:42:42.080
waters and those are whales that migrate from from 
Hawai'i you know we estimate about 90 percent of the whales in  

00:42:42.080 --> 00:42:48.000
Southeast Alaska come to Hawai'i so that's our our 
basic group and the wonderful work being done  

00:42:48.000 --> 00:42:53.680
by Chris Gabriel and John Nielsen keeping such 
a close eye on those whales in Glacier Bay and  

00:42:53.680 --> 00:42:58.960
tracking year to year was able to really show the 
type of decline that we were seeing so we really  

00:42:58.960 --> 00:43:06.480
saw some drops in the number of calves produced 
so the feeling was that it was nutritional stress  

00:43:06.480 --> 00:43:13.920
and to get to this  we launched our aerial work 
and so this was back in 2017 when we started this  

00:43:13.920 --> 00:43:20.960
and so we were working at the start of this sort 
of new technology so we used a fairly low  

00:43:20.960 --> 00:43:27.920
low grade entry I think you could say using a 
using a simple phantom UAV we measured the we  

00:43:27.920 --> 00:43:33.920
measured the length of our boat at multiple 
multiple heights in every flight because it turns  

00:43:33.920 --> 00:43:41.920
out the background the background barometer 
reading changes with with the air pressure  

00:43:41.920 --> 00:43:46.720
and so you have to take that into account into 
account you can't choose the altimetry from the  

00:43:46.720 --> 00:43:52.880
UAV so we worked out this calibration method using 
our boat using multiple images of the boat, producing  

00:43:52.880 --> 00:44:01.520
a line of best fit that allowed us to convert 
pixels to lengths what we did as well is rather  

00:44:01.520 --> 00:44:08.880
than relying on raw lengths we used body condition 
index working basically like a bmi so we took the  

00:44:08.880 --> 00:44:14.320
length of the whale and the visible surface with 
the idea we'd do it consistently so we could get  

00:44:14.320 --> 00:44:20.320
an idea of how things have changed and what we 
saw since what we saw was quite different  

00:44:20.320 --> 00:44:25.440
quite surprising differences between the cohorts 
and it wasn't certainly wasn't what I expected but  

00:44:25.440 --> 00:44:32.480
on second review it seems to make some sense.  
 What we really saw was that our mums and calves 

00:44:32.480 --> 00:44:39.120
both our mums and our calves we didn't see a great 
deal of difference if we pooled 2017 18 and 20  

00:44:39.120 --> 00:44:46.720
19 20 together where we did see a difference was 
in the non-maternal adults and here we saw around  

00:44:46.720 --> 00:44:52.480
about a 10 to 15 difference in body condition 
the numbers were significantly different between  

00:44:53.200 --> 00:45:00.720
the two time periods that we were looking at 2017 
and 18 and 19 and 20 and as I say a difference  

00:45:00.720 --> 00:45:08.240
coming up to around about 12 percent in general 
and when we go into the cohort specific  

00:45:08.240 --> 00:45:12.800
juveniles that we can pull out and things like 
that we're getting even larger amounts so it seems  

00:45:12.800 --> 00:45:17.840
that that's where it was.  The moms however 
did not change and it's remarkably consistent  

00:45:18.560 --> 00:45:25.680
so what we actually think was happening here 
was that our moms literally didn't go into  

00:45:25.680 --> 00:45:30.880
reproductive cycles when they were in a position 
of nutritional stress as they mentioned there is a  

00:45:30.880 --> 00:45:34.960
direct tie-in here essentially 
if you have enough adipose  

00:45:34.960 --> 00:45:42.640
 fat tissue release the hormones required to 
orchestrate ovulation and orchestrate the start  

00:45:42.640 --> 00:45:48.160
of a reproductive cycle but when the whale gets 
really thin and it might be it certainly is in  

00:45:48.160 --> 00:45:52.800
most mammals but those hormones are not produced 
we hear about this in dancers and gymnasts don't  

00:45:52.800 --> 00:45:58.880
we when people get when women get really thin 
and the reproductive cycle drops out and so  

00:45:59.520 --> 00:46:04.480
the suggestion is that in mammals we see the 
same thing and this could be what happened  

00:46:04.480 --> 00:46:09.200
with the whales where those moms really didn't 
have the body condition to support pregnancy  

00:46:09.200 --> 00:46:14.720
they didn't even initiate the whole process with 
the adults what we saw was poorer body conditions  

00:46:14.720 --> 00:46:21.360
so it might be that the males  you know that the 
males made the  return journey in the hope of  

00:46:21.360 --> 00:46:26.960
 in the hope of having a mating opportunity 
and that's where we saw the reduced volume condition expressed. 

00:46:29.200 --> 00:46:34.800
So really interesting that we see a different 
a different  response to nutritional stress  

00:46:34.800 --> 00:46:40.720
in the two different cohorts the good 
news there is good news the good news is  

00:46:40.720 --> 00:46:47.440
that numbers have come back up the warm water 
dissipated the food starts improved and by 20  

00:46:47.440 --> 00:46:53.840
2019 we were seeing lots of calves on Maui and by 
2020 those numbers had consisted over two years  

00:46:53.840 --> 00:46:58.800
so you can see we saw some really dramatic 
increases in our mom and calve encounters and  

00:46:59.760 --> 00:47:06.320
these rates were right up back to about 2014 
levels.  What's concerning is when we look ahead  

00:47:06.320 --> 00:47:11.120
when we look ahead we can realize that you know it 
looks like the ocean's getting warmer consistently  

00:47:11.120 --> 00:47:17.120
now by 20 20 50 they're estimating will be 
two degrees by one to two degrees higher overall  

00:47:17.120 --> 00:47:21.520
and blob-like conditions these you know 
these warm water heat wave conditions are  

00:47:21.520 --> 00:47:27.840
likely to reoccur at a higher baseline and so we 
have to realize that you know while our whales  

00:47:27.840 --> 00:47:31.360
dodged the bullet at this time you know 
there is more to come down the pipe.   

00:47:32.080 --> 00:47:37.120
How we think our humpback whales in Hawai'i 
may adapt? Well we know the whale populations  

00:47:37.120 --> 00:47:42.880
under nutritional stress you know if that if that 
warming water really impacts the food availability  

00:47:43.520 --> 00:47:49.120
certainly in other populations such 
as the Southern resident Orca off of

00:47:51.200 --> 00:47:55.760
Seattle that area and other southern residents it's 
thought to be nutritional stress behind their  

00:47:55.760 --> 00:48:01.200
complete drop in reproductive output 
and similarly in southern right whales  

00:48:01.200 --> 00:48:07.200
the reproductive output of females there has been 
tied into a cool availability which is reliance  

00:48:07.200 --> 00:48:13.200
on ice conditions and that connection has been 
made again so it does seem that during periods of  

00:48:13.200 --> 00:48:21.600
nutritional stress large whales will reduce their 
overall reproductive activity and we'll get far  

00:48:21.600 --> 00:48:28.720
fewer females going into the process of calving. 
Another possibility though that we certainly  

00:48:28.720 --> 00:48:35.200
should consider especially when we think about on 
2019 numbers it was super interesting you know  

00:48:35.200 --> 00:48:40.800
at one level because 2019 on Maui our numbers for 
calves came back up to around about what they've  

00:48:40.800 --> 00:48:46.640
done in 2014 so we did have a quick recovery. 
However Glacier Bay remained really low just to  

00:48:46.640 --> 00:48:52.560
two calves seen maybe possibly up to six across 
the whole of southeast in the meantime down in the  

00:48:52.560 --> 00:49:00.080
Salish Sea which is just in the waters between 
Seattle and Washington state and Vancouver  

00:49:00.080 --> 00:49:05.520
island and as you can see far more whales were 
spotted than usual and even more interestingly  

00:49:05.520 --> 00:49:12.720
over in California on this graph here this was 
the estimated expected  number of whales to be  

00:49:12.720 --> 00:49:17.840
counted in the population surveys and abundance 
estimates they were doing and this is what they  

00:49:17.840 --> 00:49:26.320
got and those estimates exceeded you know by 
500 whales or more what they expected to see now  

00:49:26.320 --> 00:49:33.440
it's possible that that population did get into 
you know into a real boom period but the other  

00:49:33.440 --> 00:49:38.400
the other thing to consider is where the mothers 
are altering their migratory routes and maybe if  

00:49:38.400 --> 00:49:43.840
that food is available further south then right 
north in Alaska maybe they're gonna stop and  

00:49:44.400 --> 00:49:49.200
feed in other areas so we may see some changing 
of the typical migratory connections that's  

00:49:49.200 --> 00:49:53.360
certainly something that may happen you 
know as we get towards these periods of

00:49:56.720 --> 00:50:02.960
reduced resources. Another thing we have to 
consider though is how the calf's doing you know  

00:50:02.960 --> 00:50:09.440
is a mother producing a calf able to does she 
have sufficient energy resources to get that calve  

00:50:09.440 --> 00:50:14.480
back and that could be another variable 
in this you know maybe  that we should  

00:50:14.480 --> 00:50:20.160
certainly consider as a possibility whether 
that nutritional stress is expressed in reduced  

00:50:20.160 --> 00:50:25.040
calf survival rates unfortunately our most recent 
estimates on this are not recent that's all we can  

00:50:25.040 --> 00:50:31.680
say Chris Gabriel did a wonderful job back in 2001 
of matching whales between Hawaii and Alaska and  

00:50:31.680 --> 00:50:37.920
she estimated a survival rate of 0.82 so that's 
about you know losing less than 20 percent  

00:50:37.920 --> 00:50:43.600
of the calves seems like a really healthy and good 
survival rate you know for really immature animals.  

00:50:44.160 --> 00:50:49.760
Zabini did a much larger estimate and 
she was looking at survival rates between  

00:50:49.760 --> 00:50:54.720
zero in the first year so her rates came in 
a little lower but you're still looking at you  

00:50:54.720 --> 00:51:02.000
know close to a 70 survival rate which you know 
it's pretty it's pretty good in terms of current  

00:51:02.000 --> 00:51:07.520
survival rates has to be said though since 2000 
the 2001 estimate we don't have one to fall back  

00:51:07.520 --> 00:51:13.440
on so it's a baseline piece of information that 
might be really useful as we understand how our  

00:51:13.440 --> 00:51:19.920
whale populations change as our waters warm and 
behavior around the neonate is something that's  

00:51:19.920 --> 00:51:27.200
proving super interesting too and certainly 
this gives pause to the idea that all the calves.  

00:51:27.200 --> 00:51:32.560
About how calves are doing in Maui waters 
or how calves do generally in this first couple  

00:51:32.560 --> 00:51:39.040
of these this first four weeks of life 
so with being in the air now doing the   

00:51:39.840 --> 00:51:43.840
ground tree that we're doing we're able to see 
some of this so I'm just gonna play this for you  

00:51:44.480 --> 00:51:49.520
and see what you think is happening here this is 
pretty interesting there isn't any sound to it so  

00:51:49.520 --> 00:51:54.320
I'll annoy you and just chat away over it you can 
see a little calf there and this was definitely  

00:51:54.320 --> 00:51:59.840
a neonate it was signs of remnants of the 
placenta was still being extruded from the  

00:51:59.840 --> 00:52:04.800
mother as we were filming I didn't show that in 
this piece but we have a record of that so we know  

00:52:04.800 --> 00:52:11.600
that this was really quite a young calf. Now it's 
very typical on Maui in Maui waters for us to see 

00:52:11.600 --> 00:52:18.960
a mom calve escort group a group like this but what 
happens next really surprised me now I have to 

00:52:19.680 --> 00:52:24.320
I have to apologize a little bit for the quality 
of the filming here unfortunately it was me flying  

00:52:24.320 --> 00:52:29.280
the drone which is never the best thing I have the 
qualifications but not the I motor skills it turns  

00:52:29.280 --> 00:52:34.160
out it's best to have a 19 year old who's done 
lots of video games doing that but just watch what  

00:52:34.160 --> 00:52:40.960
happens here as the as the escort comes up you 
can see the mom's actually got the calve riding on  

00:52:40.960 --> 00:52:48.080
her back there this little calf flaccid dorsal  
flaccid pectoral fins very obvious neck clearly a very  

00:52:48.080 --> 00:52:54.160
young you know lots of neonate traits we expect to 
see and as this escort comes underneath like this  

00:52:55.440 --> 00:53:00.080
the behavior displayed by both of these animals 
well I'll let you watch and see what you think

00:53:03.440 --> 00:53:03.940
there

00:53:05.920 --> 00:53:11.200
and watch as he turns in again here of course 
the calve is on completely the other side now  

00:53:11.840 --> 00:53:19.840
and those behaviors there are quite aggressive 
things that we often see in competitive groups  

00:53:19.840 --> 00:53:25.280
and things of that nature so it's definitely 
not the typical mother-calve escort group that we  

00:53:25.840 --> 00:53:32.320
usually see and so interpreting this it does 
seem that those escorts might be just a little  

00:53:32.320 --> 00:53:37.200
bit more feisty around the neonates than we 
originally took for granted if you watch the  

00:53:37.200 --> 00:53:42.560
second piece here you can see here he comes he's 
back again and moving in on the mom-calve again

00:53:45.680 --> 00:53:50.960
and again the mom moves the calve to the other side 
gets the calf out of the way and this time she does  

00:53:50.960 --> 00:53:56.240
actually seem to make contact with him doesn't she 
and pushes him out the way of the calf so what's  

00:53:56.240 --> 00:54:01.840
the implications like we don't know. A really 
good paper for people interested in this was  

00:54:01.840 --> 00:54:08.240
just put out by Nicole Ransom and it brought 
together all the observations we have so far on  

00:54:08.240 --> 00:54:13.280
that published recently in marine mammal science 
excellent paper to go look at the references  

00:54:13.280 --> 00:54:21.760
at the end of this presentation but and she did 
notice that she reports in that paper a little  

00:54:21.760 --> 00:54:27.360
bit more aggressive activity around neonates with 
escorts so one of the things we need to take into  

00:54:27.360 --> 00:54:32.960
account is whether or not the calves will survive 
their time in Maui.  So looking ahead what  

00:54:32.960 --> 00:54:39.920
we're hoping to do is we've joined with Ted 
Cheeseman at Happy Whale and we are taking on the  

00:54:39.920 --> 00:54:45.200
we're taking on the task of tracking our moms 
this will be a data mining exercise as well as a  

00:54:45.200 --> 00:54:49.440
data collection thing though and we have to be 
really careful about making sure we get these  

00:54:49.440 --> 00:54:55.760
moms exactly right making sure you've got 
mom escorts making sure when the mother-calf 

00:54:55.760 --> 00:55:00.160
separates in Alaska waters there's a lot of 
complications to it but we're going to take it on  

00:55:00.160 --> 00:55:06.240
and this will be a big part of the work that the 
 this this cohort of Cal state students the  

00:55:06.240 --> 00:55:11.280
students from Channel Islands and the faculty from 
Channel Islands are all going to focus on this  

00:55:11.280 --> 00:55:16.640
with us as we try and get some answers and see 
if we can work on some of those survival rates.  

00:55:17.440 --> 00:55:21.840
We're also going to look at monitoring a little 
bit more about this neonate behavior in Maui  

00:55:21.840 --> 00:55:28.480
waters talking to other people what we found is 
that in other regions there are some differences  

00:55:28.480 --> 00:55:35.280
in the behavior of neonates and you know this 
there are a couple of other studies come out  

00:55:35.280 --> 00:55:40.720
that describe quite different behavioral dynamics 
for the calves in those early days in different  

00:55:40.720 --> 00:55:45.920
regions and and really looking into that and 
comparing very precisely what's happening in other  

00:55:45.920 --> 00:55:52.560
areas may be very informative for us so right now 
we're partnering with the researchers in  

00:55:52.560 --> 00:55:58.560
Okinawa and we're going to do some comparative 
work there and we're hoping to recruit maybe one  

00:55:58.560 --> 00:56:02.640
of the Australian groups into this as well so 
that we can compare between regions and I think  

00:56:02.640 --> 00:56:08.720
that will be really helpful. At the end of the day 
you know the the health of whales and Maui waters  

00:56:08.720 --> 00:56:14.320
is very much influenced by the location you know 
it's a busy place anybody out on the water will 

00:56:14.320 --> 00:56:19.360
 attest to this and you know as busy it is 
as it is our mothers-calves often swim right through  

00:56:19.360 --> 00:56:24.640
the harbor don't they through the roadsters and 
luckily we have Ed and the entanglement team  

00:56:24.640 --> 00:56:29.520
ready to go and look out for any of the whales 
that get entangled but still we have boat strikes  

00:56:29.520 --> 00:56:34.080
and injuries like this one you know looking ahead 
this may be something we need to think more about  

00:56:34.080 --> 00:56:39.440
of course we want the Aoao channel to be a safe 
haven for mums and calves as those calves get their  

00:56:39.440 --> 00:56:45.920
start in the early days every single calve that 
we see  counts towards the longevity of this  

00:56:45.920 --> 00:56:52.080
of this population but in these days of warming 
waters it counts in a whole different way 

00:56:52.080 --> 00:56:58.320
I'm sure you're following some of the from the 
COP 26 of course may be a little biased being a  

00:56:58.320 --> 00:57:05.920
Brit but I really I felt very included 
by the comments that David Attenborough  

00:57:05.920 --> 00:57:11.040
mentioned at the start of the conference when 
he talked about rewilding the planet and working  

00:57:11.040 --> 00:57:16.320
with nature to address our changing climate. It 
turns out that there may be a way to do this  

00:57:16.880 --> 00:57:22.720
and something called the krill paradox sort of 
leads us into this when large whales removed from  

00:57:22.720 --> 00:57:30.720
southern oceans during whaling everybody expected 
to be more krill, more fish and a huge swell of  

00:57:30.720 --> 00:57:36.560
productivity now you've taken those you know those 
big appetites out of the water. What we actually  

00:57:36.560 --> 00:57:41.840
found is krill numbers plummeted by 80 percent and 
that was the first indication that our whales are  

00:57:41.840 --> 00:57:47.680
an essential component in nutrient cycling systems. 
I'm sure you've heard already that they move  

00:57:47.680 --> 00:57:54.320
iron and other crucial crucial minerals 
that are released and sink to bottom of the  

00:57:54.880 --> 00:58:00.480
of the water column where whales are feeding down 
low in the water column rising into the surface  

00:58:00.480 --> 00:58:06.160
and when they defecate they release that 
iron. A recent paper as well has also  

00:58:06.160 --> 00:58:10.800
further clarified that the movement of the whale 
through the water redistributes the iron so that  

00:58:10.800 --> 00:58:16.000
it can be used by cocoapods as well as krill and 
it really has the effect of regulating the  

00:58:16.000 --> 00:58:22.960
productivity in these areas this study here was 
done by the international monetary fund and they  

00:58:22.960 --> 00:58:29.040
were really able to establish the big role that 
our whales might be able to take in increasing  

00:58:29.040 --> 00:58:34.800
the productivity of the ocean and that would sink 
carbon dioxide which of course is the thing we're  

00:58:34.800 --> 00:58:39.840
so worried about with climate change that would 
have the impact of really sinking carbon  

00:58:39.840 --> 00:58:47.920
dioxide into the ocean and fixing it in a 
very long-term way and currently each whale that  

00:58:47.920 --> 00:58:54.160
we count we can count 33 tons of carbon dioxide 
actually in the biomass of the whale itself but  

00:58:54.160 --> 00:59:00.720
more important is perhaps the up regulation that 
they provide as these whale pumps moving that iron  

00:59:00.720 --> 00:59:06.240
through the water column increasing phytoplankton 
productivity and you know the stats are remarkable  

00:59:06.240 --> 00:59:12.080
 calculated by economists one percent 
increase in phytoplankton would be the equivalent  

00:59:12.080 --> 00:59:18.320
of our adding two billion trees and sinking 1.7 
billion tons of carbon dioxide annually this is  

00:59:18.320 --> 00:59:22.640
what David Attenborough was talking about when 
he said that we can look to the natural world we  

00:59:22.640 --> 00:59:27.600
can look to nature for some of the problems that 
we're facing at the moment and as we look out in  

00:59:27.600 --> 00:59:32.080
the waters of the Sanctuary I'm sure I'm speaking 
to the converted when you look out and you're on  

00:59:32.080 --> 00:59:38.160
the boat and it's hard to believe that things are 
as challenging as they are because here in Hawai'i  

00:59:39.040 --> 00:59:44.320
we're very very lucky to to work in such a 
beautiful place  one of the great pieces of news  

00:59:44.320 --> 00:59:49.760
recently of course was that our dolphin resting 
areas are going to be protected what a huge step  

00:59:49.760 --> 00:59:55.360
forward and thanks to the work of so many people 
that that that came to be but we've also got  

00:59:55.360 --> 01:00:00.640
to think of the whales there in an equally 
highly trafficked area and the work we do  

01:00:00.640 --> 01:00:08.240
hopefully will ensure that they are protected as 
they live amongst us in this favored area so I'd  

01:00:08.240 --> 01:00:13.920
just like to leave with one key thought really 
and that is you know what we see when we see these  

01:00:13.920 --> 01:00:19.280
when we see calves in Maui waters the one 
thing I would like to point out is that every  

01:00:19.280 --> 01:00:25.200
calve can make a difference a young calve like this 
if it makes it successfully to Alaska will likely  

01:00:25.200 --> 01:00:32.720
will likely live to be maybe 60 years if it's a 
female it will reproduce between the ages of maybe  

01:00:32.720 --> 01:00:39.920
10 and 50 so that's 40 years of reproduction two 
with a with a biannual calf that's 20 new whales  

01:00:39.920 --> 01:00:45.200
that can also be adding to the mixing of 
the waters and the productivity of the ocean  

01:00:45.200 --> 01:00:51.520
and helping us address the very issues that 
are threatening these whales so I hope that we  

01:00:51.520 --> 01:00:57.200
can think towards a larger goal when we think 
of our whales these days as the IPCC just said  

01:00:57.200 --> 01:01:01.760
every single turn of carbon dioxide that we 
sink in that we take out of the atmosphere  

01:01:02.320 --> 01:01:08.160
 can reduce the rate at which our climate 
warms so every time we see one of our little  

01:01:08.160 --> 01:01:13.840
calves so happy and healthy in the waters 
of Maui it should be a chance of celebration  

01:01:13.840 --> 01:01:19.840
because this might just be the way that we 
can reinstate our large whale populations  

01:01:19.840 --> 01:01:26.560
and get them back to really healthy numbers and in 
so doing they we're going to support the health  

01:01:26.560 --> 01:01:32.800
of the larger ocean system so okay well that is my 
presentation with that I'd just like to say thank  

01:01:32.800 --> 01:01:37.440
you so much to all the people that help with the 
work that we do obviously this is a group effort  

01:01:37.440 --> 01:01:44.080
and we all have our role in it but we're always 
open to new assistants, new volunteers and new  

01:01:44.080 --> 01:01:49.280
ideas of how we can take on these key questions 
and contribute to yeah so much of the wonderful  

01:01:49.280 --> 01:01:55.520
work that's being done here in Hawai'i. I've got a 
bunch of references here but if you download and  

01:01:55.520 --> 01:02:00.320
this this presentation later on you might 
want to look for some of those and with that  

01:02:00.880 --> 01:02:06.400
just ready to take any questions thank you so 
much for listening to the presentation today.

01:02:08.560 --> 01:02:13.040
Thank you Rachel.  That was a really great 
presentation and I know a lot of folks have  

01:02:13.040 --> 01:02:18.880
been asking if this is being recorded . Yes 
it is and once we get it closed captioned  

01:02:18.880 --> 01:02:26.560
we will archive it on the ONMS webinar series 
and it has been sent in the chat box the link to  

01:02:26.560 --> 01:02:32.240
that so check it out in a couple weeks and we'll 
also email you a heads up when it does get posted  

01:02:33.040 --> 01:02:38.000
other than that I know we have a couple questions 
and we are running a bit over time but folks if  

01:02:38.000 --> 01:02:45.360
you can hang on with us.  One question Rachel 
was: Did you notice more surface behavior from calves

01:02:45.360 --> 01:02:52.400
last season in Maui with less boats out there to 
COVID ? That was really interesting.  I wouldn't  

01:02:52.400 --> 01:03:00.400
say we noticed more surface activity and what 
we were expecting to see was more calves in shore

01:03:01.040 --> 01:03:06.640
and you know because we've always felt that there 
was an impact of traffic we really didn't see that  

01:03:06.640 --> 01:03:12.560
and our data doesn't support that either 
the one change I am I'm not sure I'm seeing  

01:03:12.560 --> 01:03:18.880
but I think I'm seeing is more younger calves so 
that's probably the most noticeable difference  

01:03:18.880 --> 01:03:25.120
we saw last year and in terms of a specific 
difference in fact by the time we got on the water  

01:03:25.120 --> 01:03:30.800
and we were out for the entire season but  
because the boats were running at half capacity  

01:03:30.800 --> 01:03:37.360
there was a few less boats but there wasn't that 
noticeable of a drop in boat traffic I wouldn't  

01:03:37.360 --> 01:03:43.600
say they're just the boats were on that were the 
boats that were out were not quite as full and you  

01:03:43.600 --> 01:03:48.880
know I have to say in general I think our watching 
community is so respectful around the whales  

01:03:48.880 --> 01:03:55.680
that you know I think we have a habituated 
population which you know has pros and cons for  

01:03:55.680 --> 01:04:01.280
sure but the the pronounced changes I'm seeing is 
possibly more younger whales and a shorter season  

01:04:01.280 --> 01:04:05.760
as well yeah a few less mums and 
calves sticking around to the end of  

01:04:05.760 --> 01:04:08.560
end of march is probably the other 
thing that we're really noticing.

01:04:10.880 --> 01:04:14.480
Thank you Rachel. And one last 
question before we move forward.   

01:04:14.480 --> 01:04:18.960
Where did the large amount of 100 
gallons of milk per day come from?  

01:04:20.560 --> 01:04:26.720
I do not know and I would really be interested to 
find out where that urban legend came from and 

01:04:26.720 --> 01:04:33.360
it's something that I've been asked a lot and 
that was why as a group you know I delved into  

01:04:33.360 --> 01:04:38.560
the numbers I had it I had a rough estimate and 
then I spent some of my pandemic lockdown days I  

01:04:38.560 --> 01:04:42.800
thought I'm gonna read I'm gonna make sure I've 
got that exactly right because it is surprising  

01:04:42.800 --> 01:04:49.360
and I have no idea but I'd be very interested to 
hear where it originally came from so yeah it's  

01:04:49.360 --> 01:04:54.800
definitely is it's definitely a lot lower than we 
thought.  So I even heard it in the most recent  

01:04:54.800 --> 01:05:01.760
one of the recent documentaries the secret 
life of whales they they quoted that specific  

01:05:01.760 --> 01:05:07.840
number so you'll hear it everywhere but it 
really isn't worn out by the energetics of things.

01:05:17.120 --> 01:05:18.560
You're on mute Cindy. 

01:05:21.440 --> 01:05:28.240
Alight thank you everyone. Alight so thank 
you Rachel. If folks have any other questions  

01:05:28.240 --> 01:05:32.800
for Rachel please submit it in the question box 
and we will get them to her and we can send you  

01:05:32.800 --> 01:05:39.440
an answer to them other than that I think 
we'll kind of conclude with some closing slides.  

01:05:39.440 --> 01:05:44.880
So thank you for attending today's webinar as 
I mentioned earlier we welcome any feedback or  

01:05:44.880 --> 01:05:51.200
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01:05:51.200 --> 01:05:57.040
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01:05:57.040 --> 01:06:03.840
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01:06:06.080 --> 01:06:12.480
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01:06:12.480 --> 01:06:18.320
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01:06:20.400 --> 01:06:24.400
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01:06:24.400 --> 01:06:27.920
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01:06:27.920 --> 01:06:32.160
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01:06:32.160 --> 01:06:36.160
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01:06:38.240 --> 01:06:42.320
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01:06:42.320 --> 01:06:46.720
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01:06:48.960 --> 01:06:54.800
and other than that thanks again to Rachel for 
a great presentation we really appreciate you

01:06:54.800 --> 01:07:13.840
presenting to all of us as well as all of our 
viewers and Mahalo to all of you for taking the time to join us and this concludes today's webinar 
Mahalo everyone thank you thank you. Thank you

01:07:18.080 --> 01:07:18.580