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WHALE OF A PHOTO CONTEST
CAST YOUR VOTE BY WEDNESDAY!
Between July 27 and August 10, the Development Team received over 200 photo submissions to our Whale of a Photo Contest. The submissions have been narrowed down to 30 finalists, and we are now calling on all staff to help us determine the top 12 photos to be published in our 2023 Marine Life Calendar. If you would like to participate in this internal voting round, click on the link below today!
 
VOTE TODAY
Please submit your survey responses no later than Wednesday, August 17. Your top 12 selections will advance to the public voting round between August 22 - September 6, and the image with the most votes will be featured on the calendar cover. Thank you for your participation. Our fundraising efforts for the Whale of a Photo Contest would not be possible without our staff support! 
OCEAN CAREER QUEST
OCTOBER 3-7
The Education team will be conducting a pilot session of the Ocean Career Quest program October 3-7. The program will be offered FREE of charge to Maui middle school students (grades 6-8). Ocean Career Quest is an immersive five-day program that will introduce Maui middle school students to careers in marine science and ocean conservation and will take place on board a floating classroom (one of PacWhale Eco-Adventures' vessels). Applications are now open and must be received by September 5, 2022 for consideration.
 If you know anyone on Maui with middle school-aged students who may be interested, please help us spread the word to them.
LEARN MORE
RESEARCH UPDATES
At the recent Society for Marine Mammalogy conference, PWF researchers attended educational workshops and delivered 5 presentations, with an additional 12 co-authored presentations delivered by our partners. Our presentation topics included: using drones to measure rapid weight loss in pygmy killer whales, the impacts of swim-with-whale tours in Australia, fishery-related injuries to dolphins in Maui Nui, the Whale and Dolphin Tracker app, and spatial overlap between vessel traffic and dolphins in Maui Nui. In addition to sharing our conservation research - networking, learning of emerging science and reinforcing partner relationships are all important facets of conference attendance. You can view the list of PWF's presentations on our publications page under "Conference Presentations". 
MAUI 
The Hawai'i research team is preparing for a 10-day field survey of dolphins later this month based out of Kahului Harbor. This is the first time in PWF's history we are surveying the windward side of Maui. This fieldwork is part of our effort to expand our survey coverage to include the entire range of the dolphin populations we study. 
AUSTRALIA 
In Australia, we continue to assess the body condition of humpback whales using drones. We have collected measurements from 32 whales so far this season, including two mother and calf pairs. This year we are also piloting a line transect dolphin project to estimate the abundance and distribution of 3 dolphin species. This will be the first time these dolphin populations have been formally assessed in Hervey Bay and we look forward to providing resource managers with our findings.  
ECUADOR 
In Ecuador, we study humpback whales using photo-ID and have documented 179 whales so far this season. We are also continuing to survey bottlenose dolphins and build out a photo-ID catalog to understand the home range and size of this population, but it is time consuming work as our encounter rates with the dolphins are low. Recently, we discovered a floating whale placenta - just like the ones that have been retrieved by PWF in Maui! We have sampled it and will add it to the records obtained from Hawai'i to advance our understanding of humpback whale reproduction.  
PACWHALE ECO-ADVENTURES
Shout out to accounting and customer care who have put in a tireless amount of effort to transition our reservation system from Fareharbor to Anchor over the last month and a half. You are appreciated! 

The research team wants to send a huge Mahalo to Bri Simon and Matt Olenski for collecting opportunistic photo-ID data onboard an OE Wildside trip this July! Thanks to your efforts, we identified one of the dolphins as #151 (also called "double scoop")!! This dolphin has been sighted by our researchers 17 times since 2016, most recently this dolphin was seen a bunch during our humpback whale surveys in both 2022 and 2021 in interspecies interactions. We were able to identify it as a male using images of its genital slit while it was leaping near OP in March 2022. Thanks so much for taking the time to pull out the camera and iPad to collect valuable data for our research! 
401(k) PLAN | MATCHING FUNDS AWARDED THIS MONTH
To encourage and support you in saving for retirement, the Pacific Whale Foundation 401(k) Plan awards a company match every year - matching your contributions dollar for dollar up to a 2% contribution rate. The Plan also allows PWF to set the match higher than 2%, based on business performance and board approval.  
I’m happy to announce that we’re awarding a 6% match for 2021! Here’s how it works: 

If you contributed 6% or less of your paycheck to your 401(k) in 2021, PWF will match 100% of what you contributed.  

If you contributed more than 6% of your paycheck to your 401(k) in 2021, PWF will match 100% of what you contributed up to the 6% contribution rate. Contributions above the 6% contribution rate will not be matched. 

In order to receive the match, you must meet the following criteria: 
You contributed to the Plan at least once in 2021 
You were an active employee on December 31, 2021  

Matching funds for the 2021 plan year will be visible in your Retirement account in ADP by the end of the month. If you have questions, please email hr@pacificwhale.org. 
2022 EMPLOYEE SURVEY | RESULTS 
Mahalo to everyone who participated in our annual Employee Survey in Q2. The response rate was good at 48%! We use feedback from this survey to inform changes to policies, processes, procedures and benefits for the upcoming year. Below is a high-level summary of what we heard. 

The top 3 reasons people work here: 
The people 
The work 
The mission  

People are proud to work here (96%) and have trust in both Kristie/leadership team (94%) and their direct manager (90%). 

Where we can improve: 
Communication: While the amount and frequency of both business information and HR information was viewed as ‘just right’, we heard that email overload is real, information is sometimes delayed in getting to everyone, there are too many different communication channels to keep up with (i.e., email, text, ADP, Sling, Slack, Teams, etc), and people want to be able to connect with each other.  We’ll be working on streamlining our internal communications to make sure everyone gets the information they need in order to be successful, while keeping information consistent, timely, and coordinated to reduce email overload. This work will include enabling you to more easily connect with anyone across the organization. 

Core Values: 42% of people feel they do not have a solid understanding of our core values of transparency, respect, and integrity - or what they look like in action. Our work to improve internal communications will include a focus on our core values and we’ll continue our work to ensure that people are reviewed on and recognized for demonstrating our values. 

Wellbeing: The pandemic has taken its toll on staff’s physical, emotional, and financial health (33% are feeling a ‘significant’ impact). We will continue to promote our current wellbeing-related resources and benefits and are evaluating potential changes to our benefits package for 2023. In addition, we’ve dedicated resources to focus on filling open positions as quickly as possible to ensure proper staffing levels. 

 
EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK | AUGUST UPDATE
A new version of the Employee Handbook has been posted to ADP. The updates include information about remote and hybrid work arrangements and updates related to the reclassification of vessel staff from Jones Act Exempt to Non-Exempt that went into effect this month. Please delete/destroy any previous versions of the handbook. If you have questions, please email hr@pacificwhale.org
FROM OUR ʻOHANA TO YOURS
MAHALO FOR YOUR SUPPORT

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