UH workshop examines
whale, dolphin behavior

The University of Hawaii Psychology Department and Outreach College are offering a noncredit workshop, "Whales and Dolphins: Understanding Marine Mammal Behavior," next month.

Sessions will be from 6 to 8 p.m. on Mondays, June 6, 13, 20 and 27, in George Hall, Room 213, at UH-Manoa. The cost is $75.

Siri Hakala, who has a masters degree in psychology/marine mammal behavior and biology, will conduct the workshop. She has studied marine mammals in the Gulf of Maine, at the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Lab and the Dolphin Institute.

She was an observer aboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ship McArthur II on a cruise that tracked humpback whales along the coast of Canada and Alaska to the end of the Aleutian Island chain.

Last fall, she volunteered with the Humpback Acoustic Research Collaboration in Australia, using passive acoustics to track singing humpback males as they migrated past the coast of eastern Australia.

In July, Hakala will join "Eye of the Whale," a long-term study in Alaska of a small population of humpbacks that migrate annually to Prince William Sound.

For more information, visit www.outreach.hawaii.edu. To register, call 956-8400.