October 2018 Update

As always thanks for spreading the good HURC word. Here is your October Update:

(c) Robert Pecoraro

UPDATE POSTS:

1. Our website homepage looks a little different. If you haven't checked it out, we have a drone video featured on the main page. This was shot during a Cascadia Research Collective research cruise and they are graciously letting us use it for our website. It will hopefully be more visually attractive and keep people on the website.

2. The team had a very successful outreach trip to Maui and Lanai. Thank you to everyone who helped out organizing and documenting. Shout out to Brittany and Chloe, thanks you two!

3. Still working on fundraiser ideas for the end of 2018 and early 2019. Any ideas, send them to Maria's email.

4. We have been contacted by Dr. Melanie Hutchinson who researches Oceanic White Tip sharks to assist her with building her database and online presence. She is looking for something similar to what HURC has done but for her OWT research. We may ask you to share her website and social after we redo everything.

5. The team attended a NOAA grant writing workshop this month in hopes of expanding our funds for the upcoming years

6. We are in talks with the Hawaii Brewery Run Series to be a beneficiary to one of their upcoming events.

7. Stacia and Travis spent a day on the water testing our laser photogrammetry rig. No whale sharks were found that day, but the team encountered an Oceanic White Tip shark to help set a baseline for the camera and lasers. If you look closely at the sharks flank you can see the two small green dots from our lasers. This project stems from the small grant we received from the PADI foundation that will hopefully allow us to accurately determine morphometrics of the whale sharks around our islands.

(c) Deron Verbeck

(c) Chloe Cryan

UPCOMING EVENTS:

List of our upcoming presentations:

November 6, 2018 - UH Hilo American Cetacean Society

January 17, 2019 - Mokupāpapa Discovery Center