Winter Hawaiian Islands Cetacean and Ecosystem Assessment Survey
December 01, 2020
The primary goals of Winter HICEAS 2020 were to collect data required to estimate the abundance and distribution, examine the population structure, and understand the habitat of cetaceans around the main Hawaiian Islands during the winter months.
There were 5 major research components to the project:
- visual observations for cetaceans following a line-transect survey design;
- passive acoustic monitoring for cetaceans using towed hydrophone arrays, sonobuoys, and autonomous drifting acoustic recorders;
- collection of photographs and tissue samples and deployment of satellite tags for select cetacean groups;
- visual observations for seabirds following a strip-transect survey design; and
- ecosystem measurements for assessment of cetacean and seabird habitat.
Yano KM, Oleson EM, McCullough JLK, Hill MC, Henry AE. 2020. Cetacean and Seabird Data Collected During the Winter Hawaiian Islands Cetacean and Ecosystem Assessment Survey (Winter HICEAS), January-March 2020. U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA Technical Memorandum NOAA-TM-NMFS-PIFSC-111, 72 p. https://doi.org/10.25923/ehfg-dp78.