Madison Stewart, aka ‘Shark Girl’ returns to the World Whale Film Festival, February 08, 2019, with an update on her goal to convince shark fishermen in Indonesia that tourism is a viable and profitable alternative to the shark fin industry.In a world where shark stock is collapsing, changing the practices of generations of shark fishermen … Continued
One year ago, almost to the day of our 3rd Annual World Whale Film Festival, Pacific Whale Foundation’s founder Greg Kaufman passed away after a hard fought battle with cancer. A pioneer in noninvasive humpback whale research in the mid-1970s, Greg founded Pacific Whale Foundation in 1980 to educate the public, from a scientific perspective, … Continued
The 3rd annual World Whale Film Festival will be held at Historic Iao Theater February 08 from 6-9pm. One of the eight films meant to inspire health through waves of change is The Hoaʻāina Of Hāʻena, presented by Kipahulu Ohana, who are focused on shoreline and nearshore stewardship resource management. The Hoaʻāina Of Hāʻena tells … Continued
Among humpback whales, mothers with calves are a particularly special group, especially in terms of conservation. Whale calves represent the next generation of an increasing population of humpback whales that will need our continued monitoring and stewardship. To study where they spend their time while here in Maui, our research department analyzed data collected by … Continued
Kicking off this year’s Maui Whale Festival, a month long celebration of the marine mammal that inspired the creation of our organization, is our annual Run & Walk for the Whales event February 02, 2019. There are so many reasons to participate this year! Support a Cause All proceeds from the event support Pacific Whale … Continued
Groans and grunts, whistles and woops—these are some of the many sounds you can hear when listening to humpback whales singing. Although humpback whale song is one of the most widely recognized animal sounds, surprisingly little is known about its purpose. This is not for lack of effort: scientists have been studying different aspects of … Continued
If you go whalewatching in Hervey Bay after mid-September, you may notice that there is a calf in nearly every pod you see. Mothers with calves are typically the last to arrive in the bay, and they may be the group that benefits most from the shallow, protected waters near Fraser Island. Our research on … Continued
This season, humpback whales haven’t been the only large baleen whale sighted in Hervey Bay. We have also had several sightings of mother-calf pairs of southern right whales, a rare species for this area. The first pair was seen in July, and there have been many additional sightings over the past several weeks, much to … Continued
Beginning in July 2018, our “Swim-with-Whales” Impact Study invites a small number of vessel passengers to enter the water with humpback whales. In Hervey Bay, Queensland the government has recently authorized commercial tour operators to allow passengers in the water alongside humpback whales and Pacific Whale Foundation wants to conduct scientific research to see how … Continued
Our Research Team has begun surveying the deeper waters southwest of Maui as part of our new false killer whale study. The first day of research took us ~30 nautical miles off the coast of Maui in waters >2,500 feet. Although we didn’t see any false killer whales, we did have two encounters with short-finned … Continued
