University of Hawaii Marine Scientists Retrieve Whale Teeth in an Effort to Prevent Poaching

by Bren Chance

Hilo, Hawaii

On April 14th 2011, University of Hawaii marine scientist, Dr. Jason Turner and three student volunteers from

the Hilo Marine Mammal Response Network (HMMRN) and the Hawaii Cetacean Rehabilitation Facility

(HCRF) placed a barricade around the whale carcass that is washed up on shore at the Wai Opai tide pools on the Hilo side

of the Big Island. The group also placed signs along the barricade to warn those who brave the trek across the tide pools that

there is a dead body present.

Dr. Turner confirmed that it was a sperm whale with a length of fifty-five feet. He said the sperm whale is an endangered species and

even a deceased sperm whale and its body parts are under Federal protection. It is required to obtain a license from the United

States Fish and Wildlife Service to legally possess any part of a sperm whale, similar to the permit needed to have an eagle feather.

According to Wai Opai's Neighborhood Watch member Al Churchill, someone has already poached three to five teeth from the whale.

Churchill said he witnessed an unidentified man taking parts from the whale around five-thirty Wednesday evening. Churchill confronted the

man, who then left. Churchill gave the man's license plate number as well as photographs of the man to the National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Dr. Turner's group harvested the remainder of teeth, the lower jaw, and side fin bones, or "hands". Dr. Turner says the teeth

become NOAA property, but will be utilized by researchers and by cultural practitioners who obtain the required permit. To

a poacher, he estimates a black market value of one-thousand dollars per tooth.

Churchill says the Wai Opai Neighborhood Watch is keeping a close eye on the whale's body, to protect both the parts and

the people who come to see it. Churchill says he won't hesitate to report anyone who defaces the carcass.