It's almost the new year! Way to go HURC team, lots of great things on the horizon.
UPDATE POSTS:
Our Abstract is in! This coming May the 5th Annual International Whale Shark Conference is going to be held in Exmouth, Australia. Hopefully we will be offered a spot to do a presentation/poster. We will let you know as soon as we hear back.
We are currently at 129 unique individuals with more submissions coming in each day. If you all don't know we use a open source program called I3S with a unique algorithm to help aid us in the identification process.
We are finishing up the contact with Dr. Melanie Hutchinson that I mentioned to you in the October update. Once we redo her website and social, I will ask you all to promote this scientific venture via your own social platform to drum up interest and followers for her research.
A lot of sightings are being submitted, please be mindful of social media to track down sightings on your islands. Winter always tends to be hectic. Even if you just forward it to me (Maria) so I can reach out to them, that works too. If you do contact someone to request a submission, please be polite, introduce the organization and yourself, and give them the link to the form: hawaiiuncharted.org/submit
The Brewery Running Series website and social is up and going. They are partnering with local breweries on Oahu, Kauai, Maui, and Big Island for these 5k's. 10% of proceeds go back to local non-profits (including HURC). We will have a booth at OLA BREW on March 23rd for people to ask questions, get a sticker, take a brochure. Be sure to share this on social media. The website is: https://breweryrunningseries.com/hawaii/ and their Instagram name is: @hibreweryrun
We have added another ambassador for Lanai. Please welcome Nick! He was a huge help with our outreach presentations on Lanai last month. He can reach out to the locals in town, while Brittany covers the boat operators from Maui. Thank you team Lanai!
We are still looking for ambassadors for Molokai. I know this is a tricky spot, but if you know anyone be sure to pass along their contact to me.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
December 4, 2018 - GEMS (Girls Exploring Math and Science), Booth Event in Kona
TBD, 2019 - UH Hilo American Cetacean Society, Presentation in Hilo
January 17, 2019 - Mokupāpapa Discovery Center, Presentation in Hilo
HURC RELATED ARTICLES / IN THE NEWS:
NONE for this month
Aloha team,
Just added on a couple of quick, recent updates. For November, we had a total of 15 separate sightings- two from Oahu and 13 from Hawaii Island. This is an increase from the two submitted sightings that occurred last November but it is important to remember that we were just starting out at that time. It will take a few years of monitoring to conclude a true overall increase of sightings. This November we added a total of 7 new individuals to our catalog.
For December, we were lucky to participate in a very successful Girls Exploring Math and Science (GEMS) program where more than 300 5th grade girls come to Kona from around the Island to explore…