Objectives:
- To monitor the status, distribution, & abundance of humpback whales in the Babuyan Islands
- To assess threats to cetaceans in the area
- To provide technical assistance in the municipality’s integrated coastal resources management plan
- To increase local awareness and knowledge on marine biodiversity and conservation
This is the first and only long-term study on a cetacean species in the Philippines and where international collaboration shows great promise in contributing to a better understanding of a threatened migratory species. We are part of several international collaborative projects with research groups and institutions in Japan, Russia and the U.S.. Currently, we are part of the Project called SPLASH (Structure of Populations, Levels of Abundance and Status of Humpback whales), a collaborative project among researchers working on humpback whales in the North Pacific.
We have been collaborating with the Okinawa Churashima Foundation and the Ogasawara research group, Everlasting Nature of Asia (ELNA) in Japan on the humpback whale photo-ID study since 2016 and we will continue to do so.
List of Completed and Ongoing Projects in the past 3 years
- Photographic identification of humpback whales in the Philippines, January 2022 to October 2022. Funded by Cascadia Research Collective – SPLASH2 Project. Philippine Photo-ID catalogue updated and contributed to Happywhale.
- Conservation of the Babuyan Marine Corridor: the only breeding ground of humpback whales in the Philippines, March 2019 to February 2020. Funded by The Rufford Foundation. Updated the Philippine photoID catalogue of humpback whales in the Philippines. Determined and published the interchange index of humpback whales in the Philippines with Ogasawara and Okinawa, Japan.