CICRU - Channel Islands Cetacean Research Unit

08/10/2026

2026 Get Into Your Sanctuary Photo Contest
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Celebrate the beauty, wonder, and diversity of America's
national marine sanctuaries through your lens!

NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries is opening the 2026 Get Into Your Sanctuary Photo Contest, inviting photographers, divers, boaters, surfers, paddlers, beachgoers, students, scientists, and coastal communities to share images from national marine sanctuaries and other ocean and Great Lakes places.

This year’s contest introduces four new categories. The photo contest runs through Labor Day, September 7, 2026, making it a great summer opportunity for anyone exploring the coast, Great Lakes, or national marine sanctuaries to share their perspective.

Show the world what the ocean and Great Lakes mean to you.
• Life in Motion challenges photographers to capture natural wildlife behavior, from feeding and hunting to schooling, caregiving, and symbiotic relationships.
• Sanctuaries and You highlights the ways people experience sanctuaries through diving, boating, paddling, research, education, and everyday moments on or near the water.
• The Water’s Edge explores the boundary where land and sea meet, including shorelines, tidepools, coastal landscapes, and split-level perspectives.
• Ripples From the Past focuses on maritime heritage, including shipwrecks, aircraft, lighthouses, historic bridges, and cultural landmarks.

Learn more: https://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/photo-contest.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=GovDelivery

08/08/2026

Fishing Vessel Joins Trained Team to Free Injured Humpback Whale 20 Miles off Oregon Coast.

An Oregon team joined by experts from Washington and a local fishing vessel freed a severely entangled humpback whale about 20 miles off the Oregon Coast on July 26. Unfortunately, although the team removed all of the gear from the whale, the entanglement left the young whale’s jaw permanently open, leaving it unable to feed and unlikely to survive. We hope that the information and insights gained in the process can help prevent future entanglements.

Read more:

Recovered fishing gear will inform action to reduce whale entanglements.

08/08/2026

New class to teach Southeast mariners how to avoid hitting humpback whales.

A new class developed by whale biologists and marine pilots in Southeast Alaska will soon teach mariners how to avoid hitting humpback whales when sailing large ships through the region. The training comes as the state’s cruise industry booms.

Humpback whales migrate thousands of miles from their winter breeding grounds in Hawaii and Mexico to feed in Alaska’s rich waters over the summer. And that’s when ship traffic surges with hundreds of cruises and whale watching tours. This summer, some ports in Southeast expect to see a record number of cruise ship passengers.

Chris Gabriele, a whale biologist at Glacier Bay National Park, and her colleagues published a scientific paper in 2019 demonstrating that large ships can maneuver around whales. The results inspired the research team to make a class that shows mariners how.

Learn more:

Developed by local whale biologists and marine pilots, the class aims to reduce ship strikes.

08/06/2026

From Ship to Shore: JOIN US! Live from Papahānaumokuākea National Marine Sanctuary
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Aloha kākou!
From August 11 through September 4, our NOAA Fisheries Service team will be at sea aboard the NOAA Ship Oscar Elton Sette as part of the Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program (RAMP) research expedition in Papahānaumokuākea National Marine Sanctuary. We would love to invite you to join us live from the sanctuary for two special Ship-to-Shore sessions.

During these interactive broadcasts, you will get a firsthand look at what it's like to live and work aboard a NOAA research vessel, meet scientists and members of our crew, and learn how they are studying and protecting one of the most unique biologically and culturally significant places on Earth. Along the way, you'll discover how science, exploration, and ‘ike Hawai‘i come together to help care for our ocean for future generations.

Below are links to register, with opportunities to submit questions before the sessions.
NOAA Live! Ship-to-Shore Sessions:
• Monday, August 31 | 10:00–10:45 AM HST → Register Here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/621589564009666648
• Thursday, September 3 | 10:00–10:45 AM HST → Register Here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3130565147432800597

Mahalo for joining us for this special live Ship-to-Shore session from the NOAA Ship Oscar Elton Sette. We are excited to connect with you as we explore the incredible Papahānaumokuākea National Marine Sanctuary together.

08/04/2026

🌊 Coastal Cleanup Day 🌞
Saturday, September 19
9:00 a.m.

Get ready to roll up your sleeves and make a difference! Join us as we team up with volunteers from across the community to help protect our coastline and local wildlife.

Coastal Cleanup Day is a global volunteer effort to clean up beaches and waterways. It is held annually in over 100 countries, and it brings together hundreds of thousands of volunteers to remove trash, raise awareness about pollution, identify its sources, and inspire behavior change.

This is a fun and impactful activity for volunteers of all ages—a great way to get outside, connect with your community, and take action for the environment. We hope you’ll join us!

Find your beach and register!
🌴Santa Barbara County: https://exploreecology.org/coastal-cleanup-day/
🏄Ventura County: https://www.vccoastcleanup.org/

08/01/2026

Risk-taking dolphins spend more time with one another

Florida dolphins that make riskier decisions to find food stick together

Wild dolphins are known for their chatty nature and complex social lives. But human activity combined with environmental stressors in areas like Florida’s Sarasota Bay can change these social structures.

New research shows that bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in Sarasota Bay that take risks to find food, like picking off bait and catch from fishermen or even approaching humans for food, are more likely to associate with dolphins that have similar behaviors.

The research, published in Animal Behavior, took into account environmental stressors like red tides that wipe out food sources. After such red tide events in the early 2000s, researchers found that dolphins who interacted more with humans to find food associated with one another. They also found that the proportion of dolphins foraging around humans increased over time, from 12% before the red tide period to 41% afterward.

Read more:

Florida dolphins that make riskier decisions to find food stick together

08/01/2026

Photos from Whale Watch Vessels Help Responders Free Entangled Humpback Whale in Monterey Bay

Whale watch operators in Monterey Bay provided critical photographs and sightings that led an authorized team from Marine Life Studies to free a humpback whale in July. It had been entangled in commercial Dungeness crab fishing gear for more than a month.

Learn more:

Marine Life Studies team uses insight to locate and cut the whale free.

07/20/2026

Mind Your Knots: Watch Your Vessel Speed to Protect Large Whales When You Sail This Summer

Vessels 65 feet and above are required to travel at 10 knots or less while inside the Great South Channel Seasonal Management Area (April 1–July 31).

Mariners: as you prepare your vessels to sail this summer, remember to watch your speed! Reducing your speed inside the Great South Channel Seasonal Management Area helps protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale. For instance, vessels participating in or watching events associated with the Sail 250 Celebration may cross the Great South Channel SMA while it is active.

Learn more:

Vessels 65 feet and above are required to travel at 10 knots or less while inside the Great South Channel Seasonal Management Area (April 1–July 31).

07/20/2026

NOAA Celebrates Sea Turtle Week 2026!

NOAA’s Sea Turtle Week was June 15–19, 2026. Sea turtles are a key part of marine ecosystems worldwide but face many threats. Take a dive into our features and videos to learn more about these amazing marine reptiles.

Six sea turtle species are found in U.S. waters, and all are threatened or endangered. Read about NOAA’s work to conserve and recover sea turtles in this message from Kim Damon-Randall, Director of NOAA Fisheries' Office of Protected Resources.

Learn more:

Sea turtles are a key part of marine ecosystems worldwide but face many threats. NOAA works to conserve and recover six sea turtle species found in U.S. waters. All are threatened or endangered.

07/20/2026

Diving Deep into S***m Whale Clicks

What s***m whale sounds tell us about their population demographics in the Gulf of Mexico.

Between June and August 2025, my fellow scientists of the Southeast Fisheries Science Center and crew of the NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter deployed a towed hydrophone array—an underwater microphone system—about 300 meters behind the ship. The goal? To detect the sounds produced by one species in particular: the endangered s***m whale.

This survey was focused on finding and studying these deep-diving giants. The scientists worked with the ship’s crew to transit through prime s***m whale habitat. Visual observers, drone operators, and acousticians were always on high alert—each using their specialized methods to detect these creatures.

Learn more:

What s***m whale sounds tell us about their population demographics in the Gulf of America.