Cetacean Institute

09/09/2026

The most incredible multiple rainbows any of the Humpback Whale Missed Signals Project team had ever seen. These resulted from the sun's direct rays and its rays reflected from the surface of the Frederick Sound water in August. It's the perfect warp drive rainbow for today's Star Trek Day 60th anniversary post.

The humpback whales have off and on been thick around the lighthouse, as this video from the beginning of the research trip in August shows. Data are still being gathered until September 15 and then the research team has months of analyses to perform. We still have several thousand dollars to go to meet our funding goal for this project, so please donate to the Humpback Whale Missed Signals Project at the link in the first comment.

09/03/2026

A few images from the work being done at the Five Finger Lighthouse by the Humpback Whale Missed Signals Project. You can donate to help this project here:
https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/project-001-humpback-whale-aerial-signals-project

08/18/2026

The Humpback Whale Missed Signals Project is underway at the Five Finger Islands Lighthouse in Frederick Sound, Alaska. This is the first project that the Cetacean Institute is helping to fund and we hope you'll help us achieve our goals. This is a video of just a few of the humpbacks that have been feeding around the island for several hours this morning.

Humpback whales feeding immediately offshore from Five Finger Islan...

07/14/2026

The Humpback Whale Missed Signals Project was recently awarded a seed grant from the SETI Institute to measure electromagnetic fields from humpback whale exhalations. This grant pays for equipment, as well as some expenses for SETI personnel and affiliates. However, it doesn't pay for airfare or any stipends for non-SETI key technical personnel needed to perform the measurements. We need to raise $10,000 for the project in the next month to cover these expenses. If you can help with a contribution, whether large or small, or if you know someone who would like to help, please see the link to the Humpback Whale Missed Signals Project donation page in the comments. 🖖🏼🐋

06/18/2026

We just had these beautiful enamel lapel pins made, so we can give one to anyone who donates $250 or more to us or one of our projects! There are links in our bio for you to contribute. 🐋🖖🏼🫍🌌

06/10/2026

Now, in addition to being registered with Benevity, we're registered with YourCause by Blackbaud. That means that if you work for Boeing or other companies that use YourCause to administer their corporate matching, you can donate to the Cetacean Institute and your employers will match your donations to us!
Search for our YourCause registration ID 41-4361037 or search for Cetacean Institute to contribute through your company.

05/28/2026

If you or any of your friends work for Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Costco, Starbucks, Google, AmEx, PayPal, Alaska Airlines, Nike, Sephora, and nearly a thousand other companies that use Benevity to administer employee donations, please consider donating to the Cetacean Institute via your company giving program. This will ensure that we receive matching donations from your employers. Boeing uses a different facilitator, and we're in the process of registering with them now.

Our Benevity Cause number is: 840-414361037
Please share with your friends!

05/09/2026

You can now make contributions to the Cetacean Institute and the projects we support from our convenient non-profit organization page. Just save the QR image, send to your friends, and use Google to take you to our page. The url is provided below.

03/29/2026

We are now accepting donations! See the information in the comments to donate to our inaugural project 001, the Humpback Whale Aerial Signals Project. In addition, you can make a general donation to help us with our basic operations and to fill our coffers, which will ultimately allow us to fund multiple projects.

03/21/2026

We are now officially a tax exempt public charity under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3)!