Three UH marine mammals will continue research role at Sea Life Park

BJ, a 29-year-old female Tursiops. Image courtesy of HIMB.

Three marine mammals that have been involved in hearing and underwater noise studies at the Hawai‘i Institute for Marine Biology (HIMB) for more than 20 years have been relocated to Sea Life Park. Kina, a 40-year-old female false killer whale (Pseudorca crassidens), and two bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) — Boris, a 26-year-old male, and BJ, a 29-year-old female — came to UH with Paul Nachtigall in 1993 when he founded the Marine Mammal Research Program at Coconut Island in Kāneʻohe Bay.

“It was challenging for the university to pay all needed expenses for Kina, Boris and BJ, so Sea Life Park agreed to take excellent care of them,” said Nachtigall. “One should only keep marine mammals if one can afford outstanding veterinary care, the best possible food fish and pay superb trainers to care for them. Because the life span of these marine mammals is about 50 years, we wanted to ensure that this arrangement is a win-win situation for both our animals and marine research.”

Read more about it in the Pacific Business News and the UH System News.