The Occurrence of Humpback Whales Across the Hawaiian Archipelago Revealed by Fixed and Mobile Acoustic Monitoring

The occurrence of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) across the 2600 km of Hawaiian archipelago, which include the remote atolls, banks, and seamounts of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM), remains poorly understood. Previous surveys for humpback whales beyond the main Hawaiian Islands have been scarce due to limited access and the challenging winter conditions typically found in PMNM when whales are present.

To overcome these limitations, a combination of moored acoustic recorders and a Wave Glider autonomous surface vehicle were used to acoustically monitor eight locations and survey approximately 1500 km of the Hawaiian archipelago for the occurrence of humpback whale song during the 2019-2020 breeding season.

The results reveal that nearly the entire Hawaiian archipelago is exploited by humpback whales during the winter and early spring months. Moreover, song occurrence patterns suggest that there may be more structure in the distribution of whales in PMNM than previously known and raises questions about whether multiple subpopulations occur across the archipelago.

Lammers MO, Goodwin B, Kugler A, Zang EJ, Harvey M, Margolina T, Martinez JA, Merkens K and Hatch LT. 2023. The occurrence of humpback whales across the Hawaiian archipelago revealed by fixed and mobile acoustic monitoring. Front. Mar. Sci. 10:1083583.  https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2023.1083583.