Pacific Islands Volunteer Opportunities 

• Educating the public about marine wildlife, human health and safety concerns, potential environmental impacts, and conservation methods.
• Reporting marine animals in distress (due to injury, entanglement, etc.) and standing by for NOAA trained field responders to arrive.
• Protecting sea turtles by educating the public about how to view wildlife respectfully and how to reduce or prevent human disturbance to sea turtles.
• Responding to seals hauled-out to rest and monitoring monk seal pupping events by providing a "seal resting area" buffer that alerts the public to the presence of the seal and helps limit disturbance.
• Responding to reports of injured, entangled, or dead sea turtles.
• Helping to respond to live or dead cetacean (whale and dolphin) strandings.
• Helping to monitor sea turtle nesting activities.

NOAA and our partners offer a wide range of volunteer opportunities and student internships. Several ways to engage in NOAA and partner programs are listed below.

Report Sightings of Protected Wildlife

There are often opportunities for the public to assist in gathering scientific information, otherwise known as Citizen Science. Learn more about NOAA’s ongoing citizen science and crowdsourcing efforts.

• Report injured or dead monk seals, sea turtles, whales, and dolphins to the NOAA Marine Wildlife Hotline at (888) 256-9840.
• Report illegal or suspicious activity that may result in marine animal harassment, injury, or death to the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement at (808) 853-1964. Information that is not time-sensitive or not an emergency can also be sent to respectwildlife@noaa.gov.
• Report all sightings of hawksbill turtles to the NOAA Marine Wildlife Hotline at (888) 256-9840 or send reports and photos to respectwildlife@noaa.gov.
• Report all sightings of green sea turtles with numbers on their shells via our Honu Count Sighting Survey. Learn more about Honu Count Citizen Science >

Get Involved In Your Area

To get involved in your local community, find your local area.

Oʻahu

• Marine mammal response and monk seal recovery for college students and recent graduates, please send inquiries to: piro.mmrvolunteers@noaa.gov
• Cetacean response for members of the public, college students, and recent graduates, please email the coordinator at the Marine Mammal Research Program Stranding Lab at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (whales and dolphins)
• Hawaiʻi Marine Animal Response (monk seal and  sea turtle)
• Hanauma Bay Volunteer Program (marine naturalist)
• Mālama i nā Honu (sea turtle)

Maui

• Hawaiian monk seal response, spinner dolphin monitoring, and cetacean stranding response programs, please email the NOAA coordinator
• Hawaiian Hawksbill Conservation (sea turtle)
• Hawaiʻi Wildlife Fund (sea turtle)
• Maui Ocean Center Marine Institute (sea turtle)
• The Marine Mammal Center (monk seal)

Hawaiʻi Island

• Spinner dolphin volunteering, please email NOAA volunteer coordinator.
• Cetacean response for members of the public, college students, and recent graduates, please email the coordinator at the Marine Mammal Research Program Stranding Lab at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (whales and dolphins).
• Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park Service Hawksbill Turtle Program (sea turtle).
• The Marine Mammal Center: Ke Kai Ola (monk seal).

Kauaʻi 

• Kauaʻi Hawaiian Monk Seal Conservation Hui (monk seal and cetaceans)

Molokaʻi

• Cetacean response for members of the public, college students, and recent graduates, please email the coordinator at the Marine Mammal Research Program Stranding Lab at the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa (whales and dolphins)
• Hawaiʻi Marine Animal Response (monk seal, and spinner, sea turtle)

Resources

• Report a Stranded or Injured Marine Animal