Niue – Acoustic Workshops With Oma Tafua (To Treasure Whales), we are running two acoustic workshops in Niue in August 2026. The primary target species will be humpback whales, which will be vocalising in the area at this time, but we will try to establish whether there are many sperm whales and hopefully beaked whales in the immediate vicinity of the island (small boats will go a maximum of two miles offshore). It is aimed to use a towed acoustic array to find and obtain good quality recordings of singing animals and also where calves are present it will be attempted to record cow calf vocalisations. Secondary target species will be sperm whales, beaked whales and of course spinner dolphins and their presence in waters around Niue will be investigated. While the towed array is thought to offer the best opportunity of obtaining quality recordings, an FPOD and a broadband recorder will be examined with how these can contribute data on spinner dolphin presence and other high-frequency species. We would also hope to examine the use of a GoPro to record uncompressed raw acoustic files. The use of an FPOD will be compared against broadband data, and the advantages and disadvantages of different data acquisition methods will be compared. The workshop will run with a mixture of boat and classroom days, utilising the classroom when the weather is not suitable for the boat surveys, and run over 8 days for beginners in acoustics, August 1 to 7, and August 11 to 16 for those with previous knowledge of acoustics. Cost is at $2,200 NZD or roughly €1,100 but with a discount to Pacific island representatives at $1,500 NZD. See Oma Tafua’s post on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/oma.tafua/posts/pfbid0uzERkfgDQGWacBCq4rfPHBLbpjX1P... and contact omatafua@gmail.com for the Application form- Patrick Lyne Manada Environmental Ltd – patricklyne1@gmail.com for information on workshop content.