Budget cuts will limit HPU’s response to stranded mammals

COURTESY HAWAII PACIFIC UNIVERSITY
Hawaii Pacific University researchers investigated the death of this spinner dolphin that stranded on Maui. The loss of federal grant funds may limit future investigations by scientists and students.

Select an option below to continue reading this premium story.

Already a Honolulu Star-Advertiser subscriber? Log in now to continue reading.

Get unlimited access

From as low as $12.95 /mo.

Subscribe Now

The loss of federal grant funds for a Hawaii Pacific University program will likely mean fewer investigations into deaths of stranded marine mammals in Hawaii, Guam, Saipan and American Samoa.

In recent years, Congress has appropriated about $4 million for the John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program, including about $100,000 for HPU’s marine mammal stranding program. This year, budget-tightening measures slashed all federal funding for the program.

HPU associate professor Kristi West, who has received the grant for the past seven years, said, “A lot of science comes out of this,” referring to the university’s program for monitoring the health of dolphin and whale populations in Hawaii and U.S. territories.

“There’s a lot of science we’re fearful we could lose if the program can’t keep at the level it has been. We do full necropsies to determine the cause of death.”

For example, in 2010, West’s program detected morbillivirus in a Longman’s beaked whale — the same virus that is believed to have caused a massive die-off of dolphins on the East Coast in the past several weeks. As a result, HPU scientists now screen regularly for morbillivirus.

In 2013, from January through April, the HPU program responded to the stranding of five humpback whale calves on Maui, Lanai and Oahu.

A network of more than 100 college students assists in marine mammal strandings, West said, noting that the grant money helped to provide a window for educating master’s degree candidates in marine sciences. In addition, she said, some of the grant funds covered transportation costs tied to stranding events and cargo fees required to carry carcass samples to Oahu.

David Schofield, the federal marine mammal health and response manager in Hawaii, said the marine mammal stranding response program will continue although the scope of its operations may be trimmed.

“It’s not going to go away,” he said.

West said HPU is contributing funds to the program and looking for other sources of funding.

“Without the federal grant, we are going to reduce our stranding program,” she said. “Hopefully, this is a short-term problem.”