Alaska Whale Foundation

Research: Alaska Whale Foundation continues to conduct research under its Ocean Health Program. The research focuses on establishing causal links between changing ocean conditions ocean health and whale health and is conducted in collaboration with University of Hawaii at Manoa University of Alaska Fairbanks and University of Alaska Southeast.

Education: Alaska Whale Foundation provides active learning opportunities and mentorship for graduate students and undergraduate interns through focused training and involvement in both field work and data analyses. Two graduate students and seven interns joined the Alaska Whale Foundation field team in 2022.

Ecological Monitoring: Alaska Whale Foundation continued its long-term monitoring program to track the health and abundance of Southeast Alaska's humpback whales and their underlying marine ecosystem. The whale component of this program was launched in 2016 in collaboration with NOAA's Auke Bay Laboratory Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve and University of Alaska Southeast following the removal of the population from the Endangered Species List and subsequent observations suggesting declines in population health and abundance. Each year thereafter AWF has added additional monitoring efforts and expanded the program to include a large portion of northern Southeast Alaska every month from June through September. AWF is also part of the Alaska Marine Mammal Stranding Network. This team of trained responders is authorized to free marine mammals from entanglement and to gather critical information that may reduce the frequency and impact of future entanglements.