Dataset

Cascadia Research Collective Hawaii OASIS project whale and dolphin sightings

OBIS-SEAMAP Open in mapper Explore occurrences

Original provider: Cascadia Research Collective Dataset credits: Robin W. Baird and Annette Harnish, Cascadia Research Collective Abstract: Eighteen species of odontocetes have been documented in Hawaiian waters. Prior to 2000, most research focused on spinner dolphins. Since February 2000, we have been undertaking research on cetaceans in Hawaiian waters (under the authorization of National Marine Fisheries Service permits), focusing on the less well-studied species of odontocetes, examining stock structure, site fidelity, population size, behavior and ecology. This research is being coordinated by Dr. Robin Baird, but involves collaborations with researchers from the Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Southwest Fisheries Science Center, Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, Southeast Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Mammal Laboratory, Alaska SeaLife Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Portland State University, and Hawai'i Pacific University. Primary funding for this work has come from the U.S. Navy, National Marine Fisheries Service and the Wild Whale Research Foundation. These studies have covered areas around all the main Hawaiian islands, from the island of Hawai'i in the east to Kaua'i and Ni'ihau in the west, and focus on a number of species, including false killer whales, bottlenose dolphins, short-finned pilot whales, rough-toothed dolphins, melon-headed whales, pygmy killer whales, pan-tropical spotted dolphins, Blainville's beaked whales, and Cuvier's beaked whales. More information on this research is available online at www.cascadiaresearch.org/hawaii.

Citation: Baird, R. and A. Harnish. 2023. Cascadia Research Collective Hawaii OASIS project whale and dolphin sightings. Version 1.5.0. Dataset published in OBIS-SEAMAP. https://doi.org/10.82144/7e2ca25e.

Published: October 07, 2025 at 22:44

URL: http://ipt.env.duke.edu/resource?r=zd_467

Annette Harnish
Cascadia Research Collective

3,437
occurrence records
26
taxa
21
species

Taxa

Missing and invalid fields

Field Missing Invalid
maximumDepthInMeters 3,437
100.0%
minimumDepthInMeters 3,437
100.0%

Quality flags

The OBIS data quality flags are documented at https://github.com/iobis/obis-qc.

Flag Dropped Records
NO_DEPTH 3,437
100.0%
ON_LAND 2
0.1%

Measurement types

DNA derived data