The Dolphin Institute

Aloha All,
Just back from my 17th summer studying humpback whales from Hawai’i and Mexico on their summer feeding grounds under NOAA Permit 29593. Our goals were to carry on the legacy of studies begun in 1980 by my mentor Dr. Louis Herman and his students in these same waters documenting the long-term life histories of individually-identified humpback whales, record their association patterns, and characterize their feeding behaviors. I along with Captain Harley, Chef Katie, Mates Ryan and Bart, and a wonderful team of eight eager participants including Ron Antinoja, one of the original researchers of humpbacks in Hawai'i with Lou (e.g. Herman & Antinoja, 1977), traversed calm seas in Frederick Sound, Stephens Passage and Chatham Strait where we documented the identities of over 200 humpback whales, some of them hunting herring in cooperative feeding groups using bubbles and feeding calls, and others singly using bubbles to corral krill. It was both exciting and heartwarming to recognize many of these whales as those I have seen in Alaska and Hawai’i over decades. Included among the bunch was a whale we call “Old Timer” first photographed as an adult by whale research pioneer Chuck Jurasz in Lynn Canal in 1972. That makes “Old Timer” at least 53 years old constituting the oldest known living humpback whale in the world, and one that was resilient in the face of the unprecedented North Pacific marine heatwave from 2014-2017 that devastated food resources humpbacks and other marine species rely on. Along our journey, we encountered calving glaciers and icebergs and spotted Stellar sea lions, Dall’s porpoises, harbor seals, black and brown bears, and adult and juvenile eagles. Now back in Hilo, Hawai’i my students, staff and I are processing the data eager to eventually share with you all our findings. Can’t wait for next summer’s adventures! All of this work takes place with support from the University of Hawai’i at Hilo Marine Mammal Lab, our non-profit organization The Dolphin Institute, and the leadership of Alaska Sea Adventure’s Northern Song. And the web based program “Happy Whale” provided us with the tools to be able to identify whales “in the moment.” With aloha and gratitude, Adam

Aloha Friends of The Dolphin Institute. We are delighted to let you known that the Louis M. Herman Research Scholarship is now Open for Proposals. The Scholarship was established to honor the lifelong groundbreaking dolphin and whale research by TDI's co-founder Lou Herman.

Dr. Louis M. Herman, Ph.D. and Emeritus Professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA, was a pioneer and trailblazer in research on dolphin sensory perception and cognition, and humpback whale behavioural ecology. Dr. Herman’s family, colleagues, and friends established the Louis M. Herman Research Scholarship in 2017 to honor his legacy by promoting the type of research that was the focus of his ground-breaking studies.

The Louis M. Herman research scholarship is awarded every two years by the Society for Marine Mammalogy and is open for application today (November 27 2023). The 2024 award will be for USD $6,000. Eligibility criteria and the application process is available at https://marinemammalscience.org/.../louis-m-herman.../

Pictured below are two of the most recent scholarship award recipients along with Dr. Herman. A convenient QR code to scan for scholarship information is also provided.