Conservation and Education Through Ecotourism: Using Citizen Science to Monitor Cetaceans in the Four-Island Region of Maui, Hawaii

Pacific Whale Foundation (PWF) Eco-Adventures operates a fleet of nine ecotour vessels in Maui, Hawaii and has used these vessels as an opportunistic research platform since 2010. The researchers at PWF have utilized ecotour vessels as a platform of opportunity (PoP) to collect photo‐ID data, through a program called Researcher-on-Board (ROB) and for the development of an application to log cetacean sightings, called Whale and Dolphin Tracker (WDT). In this article we compare the amount of data collected using these two methods and contrast to systematic research surveys taking place in the same location and same time period to demonstrate the value of citizen science. Both the ROB and WDT programs have been shown to be cost-effective alternatives to surveys aboard dedicated research vessels, with the additional benefit of having tour operations contribute directly to the management and monitoring of marine mammals.