Mission
Hawaii Dolphin Watch’s mission is to secure a healthy, sustainable future for dolphins through education and enlightenment.
Vision
We have a sustainable ocean environment where nai’a (dolphin in Hawaiian) thrive and live peacefully with their pods and families. Dolphins are acknowledged and celebrated as unique, intelligent mammals of great importance to healthy oceans on which all life on earth depends. People co-exist with dolphins, understanding their biology, communications, and the internet of underwater life as it relates to the natural world.
Non-Profit Organization
After a decade of discussions and collaborations, scientists, environmentalists, marine life advocates, and dolphin lovers created Hawaii Dolphin Watch. In 2022, Hawaii Dolphin Watch became a nonprofit registered in the State of Hawaii with IRS 501c3 (pending).
Goals
Why Hawaii and Hawaiian Dolphins? The islands of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean are distant from other land habitats, and life is thought to have arrived there by wind, waves, and feathers on wings. Hawaii has more endangered species and has lost a higher percentage of its endemic species than any other U.S. state.
The ongoing expansion of the tourism industry and its pressure on local systems of ecology, cultural tradition and infrastructure in Hawaii is creating a conflict between economic and environmental health.In 2020, the Center for Biological Diversity reported on the plastic pollution of Hawaii’s Kamilo beach, citing “massive piles of plastic waste.” There are also issues such as the spread of invasive species, and the contamination of groundwater and coastal waters from chemical and pathogenic runoff.
The Hawaiian name for dolphins is Nai’a. To many Hawaiians, Nai’a are ‘aumakua, ancestors or spirits, sent to protect a family. Locally Nai’a are referred to as either porpoise or dolphin, Nai’a in traditional Hawaiian culture are thought to be an oceanic tribe with equal rights as humans.
Hawaii Dolphin Watch seeks to educate, inform, and put positive guidelines in effect for the preservation of the Hawaiian Dolphin. Our organization helps locals and tourists understand dolphins in their natural habitat while promoting a healthy ocean environment for all to enjoy. We help with communication and media efforts to promote the natural and social lives of wild dolphins, by creating a model that shares the appropriate steps for a sustainable ocean environment so that dolphins can live peacefully without interference into their pods and family structure. Hawaii Dolphin Watch seeks to communicate and create awareness and appreciation of our oceans and her dolphins so people can better appreciate their existence.
Our Team
Michael Bailey
Michael Bailey is the very definition of an environmental hero opening his life in dedication to serving animals of the land a sea. Amongst his accolaids and missions he was the youngest person aboard the first Greenpeace Ship called the Rainbow Warrior where he faced off with Russian whale hunters with Matt Harron taking photos as they put themselves in-between the whales and the ships.
Michael an experienced conservationist and video producer who places a high degree of emphasis on sustainability and protection of nature. Michael’s expertise in domestic and international political matters is exemplified in the successful passage of the United Nations ban on high seas drift nets, That General Assembly Resolution successfully saves the lives of over 1 million dolphins, 4 million seabirds every year. Driftnets were a serious financial threat to the world’s salmon, tuna and billfish fisheries.
Grant Barbeito
Grant Barbeito brings a focus of technology and media distribution to the WorldOpt team. Grant’s films have also been celebrated at Sundance, Tribeca, Cannes and over fifty of the top festivals in the world. He also has a deep knowledge of distribution, marketing and PR working with filmmakers and independent distribution as a consultant to help optimize and redefine a film’s worth by customizing the approach to the TVOD, SVOD and OTT market for films. Grant has worked as a documentary cinematographer for over ten years in television and feature films. His experience includes shooting the Goodwill Games and Habitat for Humanity with President Jimmy Carter.
As a cinematographer, Grant worked on feature-length films Before the Music Dies, Living Liberal In Kansas, Bettie Paige Reveals All and the Oscar award winning SICKO directed by Michael Moore.
Grant worked with noted author and environmentalist Jane Goodall filming with her for Animals Asia in Hong Kong leading to several projects with Jane’s youth education initiative Root’s and Shoot’s.
His passion and expertise are now focused on global environmental issues about oceans and human health.