Oahu

New Study Examines Dolphins’ Respiratory Well-Being Click here to read article

Four-year-old Hawaii green sea turtles Wailele and Momona, who were hatched at Sea Life Park and raised at Dolphin Quest, were released into the ocean on Saturday, April 16, 2016, as part of a collaborative conservation initiative to protect Hawaii’s native and threatened turtle species. These young honu (Hawaiian for green sea turtle) have been ocean…

Lung mechanics and pulmonary function testing in cetaceans Click here to read article

Results Published in The Journal of Experimental Biology On July 8, 2015, the prestigious Journal of Experimental Biology published a first of its kind study providing new insights into how bottlenose dolphins breathe and handle dive related respiratory challenges. This study, which would have been extremely challenging to conduct in the wild, was hosted by…

LIVE Q&A – Dolphin Quest Research and Care Click here to watch

Dolphin Quest Oahu (DQO) was recognized this September with the prestigious Research Advancements Award at the 2014 International Marine Animal Trainer’s Association (IMATA) annual conference. Results from the study were also published in The Journal of Experimental Biology. During the IMATA conference, DQO Manager of Marine Animals, Julie Rocho-Levine, and Andreas Fahlman, a researcher with Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, shared the advancements made possible when renowned researchers collaborate with expert animal behaviorists within the marine mammal community. Fahlman, along with researchers from the MIT-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute partnered with DQO to develop non-invasive methods for estimating wild marine mammals’ metabolic rate and lung mechanics under normal and stressed conditions. The data collected from DQO’s animals provided insights into how marine mammals manage oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen in various scenarios including when the animals are wearing electronic data logging tags….

Dolphin Quest Oahu (DQO) presented a new training concept, Wait & Go, at the prestigious International Marine Animal Trainers’ Association conference in 2013. The Wait & Go game involves a series of three hand signals. The first signal cues the start of the game and asks the dolphin to wait for additional information. The trainer then gives a second hand signal for a previously trained behavior, such as a pectoral flipper wave. The dolphin doesn’t move, and continues to wait until he sees the third signal, which means go and perform the behavior. While learning the “rules” of the game, the wait proved more challenging for the dolphins. They know more than 100 hand signals and for years have performed a behavior immediately after seeing its signal. Trainers made sure to reward the dolphins for waiting as well as going,…