Developing Hawaii-based capacity to analyze accelerometry tag data to evaluate responses of marine m
Abstract
The Hawaii region is the U.S. Navy s largest and most strategic island base in the Pacific and it overlaps with the habitat of >30 s,pecies of protected marine mammals. The Navy is responsible for compliance with a suite of Federal environmental laws and regulation,s that apply to marine mammals including the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). As part of th,is regulatory compliance process, the Navy is responsible for meeting specific requirements for monitoring and reporting on military, readiness activities and Navy- funded research, development, test and evaluation activities. It is therefore important to ensure a,strong and locally-based science team to monitor the potential impacts of military activities on marine mammals in this pivotal Navy, region. The Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP) at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB; University of Hawaii at M?noa (U,HM)) is a Hawaii-based academic research institute offering education opportunities and conducting research on marine mammal ecology,, behavior and physiology in Hawaii.The overall objective of this project is to develop analytical tools and local Hawaiian-based ca,pacity to measure baseline behavior and behavioral responses of marine mammals to Navy activities using non-invasive tri-acceleromet,er archival tags. Results from tag deployments and analyses will provide the context to explore changes in fine-scale behavioral res,ponses, including startle, respiration rates, dive profiles and vocalizations of marine mammals in response to anthropogenic stimuli, in Hawaiian waters. Because of its ongoing efforts, the MMRP can ground-truth, expedite and deploy triaxial accelerometer tags on m,arine mammal species of particular interest to the U.S Navy. In addition, acoustic recordings from tag deployments will provide aco,ustic cue rates of species of interest which, in turn, will inform other PAM efforts in the Hawaiian region.This project also aims a,t expanding the research capacity at the UHM by formally training the next generation of students via seminars and directed research, courses (undergraduate and graduate students) in the fundamentals of remote sampling/sensor data analysis in the context of environ,mental compliance related to defense activities. By expanding our current cross-institutional partnerships, a post-doctoral research,er with expertise in remote sensing tag analyses will be recruited. Their main responsibilities will consist in expanding and develo,ping a set of analytical tools to work effectively with multi-sensor inertial data and answer questions at the interface of ecology,, behavior and impact assessment. This project overlaps with research needs associated with topic priorities of the Marine Mammal Bio,logy Program at ONR. The proposed capacity-building will provide a strong analytical framework for an important military region to a,ccurately quantify and ultimately predict, as well as mitigate, the impact of naval activities on protected species. This project wi,ll not only build local capacity to use animal-born triaxial tag data as a monitoring tool, it will also have the potential to enhan,ce current Navy marine mammal monitoring efforts in other regions. Data generated within this project will inform efforts focusing o,n exposure, response and consequences of naval activities on marine mammals in the largest and most strategic island base in the Pac,ific.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Sep 08, 2022
- Source ID
- N000142212721
Entities
People
- Lars Bejder
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Hawaiʻi System