Dolphin, Whale Strandings: A study of dolphin and whale strandings on Hawaiian and other Pacific Islands from 2006 to 2024 found that nearly two-thirds of the stranded animals died as a result of human-caused injury or infectious disease.
The research was conducted by the University of Hawaiʻi Health and Stranding Lab, formerly operating out of Hawaiʻi Pacific University, which investigated 272 stranded animals from 20 different species of whale and dolphin. Most strandings were linked to diseases, with about half of the animals in poor body condition, the effect of long-term illness.
Human-caused strandings accounted for 29 percent. “Vessel strikes were a significant risk, resulting in fatal vertebral and skull fractures for seven individuals, including two pygmy sperm whales, two humpback whale calves, a goose-beaked whale, a spinner dolphin, and a striped dolphin,” the University of Hawaiʻi stated in a press release reporting the findings of Kristi West, director of the Stranding Lab, and her associates.
Fishing gear and marine debris also caused several strandings, including a sperm whale that died from plastic and fishery debris blocking its stomach and a bottlenose dolphin that died after being hooked.
Diseases caused by infectious viruses and bacteria were also implicated in a number of strandings, affecting 11 different species including striped dolphins and Longman’s beaked whales. “Two of the most concerning pathogens were morbillivirus and brucella, which can cause serious brain and lung problems in marine mammals,” the press release noted.
Toxoplasmosis, caused by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, led to the deaths of two spinner dolphins and one bottlenose dolphin, the researchers write, describing this as “of anthropogenic cause in Hawaiʻi.” The parasite is spread by cat feces and, in Hawaiʻi, colonies of feral cats, living along the shore and often fed by cat fanciers, introduce the parasite into the nearshore waters.
Other parasites – nematodes, cestodes, and trematodes – were linked to deaths of pygmy and dwarf sperm whales, beaked whales, and pilot whales.
“Dolphins and whales are sentinels of ocean health,” said West. “We need to understand why these animals die to help others live.”
Most dolphins and whales die at sea, West notes, and recovery of carcasses is rare. Strandings that can be examined provide scientists with valuable information about what is happening to the animals and their ecosystem. Public reporting is critical to understanding threats to marine mammal health.
Court Rules Against Dunphy: At a hearing on October 30, 1st Circuit Judge Taryn R. Tomas granted the state’s motion for judgment on the pleadings in its case against Todd Dunphy and his companies, Tropical Exotics II LLP and Tropical Exotics IV LLP, regarding unauthorized grading and construction of shoreline erosion control devices in the Conservation District on Oʻahu’s North Shore.
A January 2022 inspection by the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands of properties at Ke Nui Road owned by Dunphy and his companies found “broken sandbags, rocks, concrete rubble, and support beams from a failed erosion control structure,” according to a staff report.
The OCCL brought a violation case to the Board of Land and Natural Resources, which decided on December 18, 2023 to levy a $107,000 fine and gave Dunphy until February 16, 2024 to restore the shoreline to a more natural state.
Dunphy neither paid the fine nor restored the shoreline.
The board’s decision assessed an additional $1,000-per-day fine if restoration work failed to commence within sixty days, deputy attorney general Miranda Steed explained in a September 2025 memo supporting the state’s motion for judgment on the pleadings.
After Dunphy failed to comply with the order, the state filed a complaint seeking to enforce payment, as well as a court order that Dunphy and his companies pay $1,000 for every day after the February deadline they failed to restore the shoreline.
“In their answer, defendants failed to deny the material allegations contained in the complaint or assert any affirmative defenses,” Steed wrote.
Judge Tamarosa issued her formal order granting the state’s motion on the pleadings on December 30.
Given that the nearly two years that have passed since the deadline to restore the shoreline, Dunphy now faces nearly $800,000 in fines.
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