June 5, 2026 — Some of Hawaiʻi’s endangered false killer whales are rapidly losing weight, a warning sign that warming oceans and limited prey may be pushing one of the nation’s smallest whale populations closer to extinction, according to research published in Endangered Species Research by a team including scientists from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
The findings provide the first quantitative evidence that nutritional stress and competition with fisheries may be accelerating the decline of this iconic population, which now numbers fewer than 140 individuals.
The research—a partnership between the Pacific Whale Foundation (PWF), Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP) at UH Mānoa Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology and Okinawa Churashima Foundation—utilized high-resolution drone photogrammetry to track 68 whales (roughly half the remaining population) between 2019 and 2025.