MEDIA RELEASE

ReefTalk, a free public educational presentation, is 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 25 at the Kealakehe High School Library, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. (Follow the yellow signs.)

Susan Rickards is primary researcher for the Hawaii Marine Mammal Consortium and veteran of 20 years of marine mammal research.

She will present research results concerning the life history and behavioral ecology of spinner dolphins, including recent genetic results, comparing spinners in the main islands to northwestern atoll communities.

She will share some unique observation experiences studying a small community of spinner dolphins at Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Rickards will also report on recent studies of Big Island dolphins and address the status of a collaborative photo-identification catalog effort of spinners in the greater Pacific Islands Region.

Rickards was born and raised on Oahu and has been a resident of the Big Island for 15 years. She has been involved in field research with marine mammals for the past 20 years.

Her research projects have included studies of the critically endangered Western Pacific gray whale off Far East Russia, spinner dolphins in the Midway Atoll region of the Northwest Hawaiian Islands, and various cetacean species inhabiting the waters around the entire Hawaiian Archipelago.

Her research focus continues to be on marine mammal population and behavioral ecology, with emphasis on providing information needed to direct policies for long-term protection and conservation of marine species.

The Hawaii Marine Mammal Consortium, a non-profit research and education organization based here on the Big Island.

For further information, contact U.H. Sea Grant College Program at (808) 329-2861.