The Whalenerd‘s Podcast: Recent Episodes
Whalenerds
The Whalenerd‘s Podcast is a science communication podcast about whales and other ocean related topics.
Slater is back! We caught up this winter in Maui and had a nice chat about our impressions and experience on the island for the first time in several years. Also we may or may not be bird nerds instead of whale nerds these days...
Katlyn and Chelsi chat about east coast humpbacks! Chelsi Napoli is currently a PhD candidate at Stony Brook University in the Thorne Lab. In the lab, she studies the health and conservation of humpback whales in the New York Bight. She uses drone photogrammetry to assess body condition of New York Bight humpback whales inter-annually and across foraging grounds, and to model the growth relationship between body length and age. Additionally, she’s using AIS data to examine how the risk of vessel strike to humpback whales on the East Coast has changed in both space and time.
Katlyn is back from Antarctica with more stories from her time as an expedition guide this season. Hear about sightings of penguins, seals and whales as well as some of the challenges Antarctica is facing.
Katlyn shares some of her encounters and adventures working in Svalbard this past summer.
We had special guest Kayah George, a Coast Salish matriarch in training, on this week to chat about some of her passions and knowledge about killer whales and the waters around what we now call British Columbia.
This week's episode we had Alex Brash join us to talk about his new book: A Whaler at Twilight: A True Account of Whaling and Redemption in the South Pacific. We chatted about the family history that led up to writing the book, whaling history, conservation and more!
This is the last episode of Antarctica trip reports! Hear about Katlyn's adventures in Argentina during her break, and the last two trips of the season. Hundreds of whales, seals and penguins - even South of the Antarctic Circle! It's not the winter (summer?) she expected, but it is a winter to remember.
With some down time from the ship, Katlyn took an adventure in Chile with her family before embarking again for the Southern Ocean. Hear about her trips with a new species of penguin, seals, boat rides and more. Her last South Georgia combo trip was also quite challenging in the midst of site closures on the island due to avian flu.
Three Antarctic Peninsula trips in one month. Whew! It was a lot but there were so many whales and cool science! Hear more about Katlyn's time in the ice and what it's like to spend Christmas and New Year's in the Drake Passage.
As avian flu continued to spread on the island of South Georgia, trips became more challenging. Listen to Katlyn's stories of the next month worth of trips in this region and how things developed on the island for the summer season. She also had some awesome whale sightings - including killer whales twice!
After a small break - Katlyn is back with updates from the Southern Hemisphere. Hear about her first trip of the season to South Georgia and Antarctica. More to come!
Katlyn gives a review of the last part of her Alaska season and talks about a few bonus trips at the end.
Killer whales are winning the summer of 2023 online. In the midst of heavy news coverage of the Iberian orcas interacting with boats making headlines - memes and tiktoks have gone viral about the events. We have covered this topic several times in the past, but with new data we decided to revisit the topic. There are up to 15 Iberian orcas interacting with boaters near the coast of Spain and Portugal. Katlyn also gives an update on her season in Alaska and her visit to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) where there is a killer whale exhibit covering our history since time immemorial with these animals.
After a longer break Katlyn is back with a recap episode from the spring trips and her first month at sea in Alaska. Listen in for a detailed recap of the two Monterey Bay trips and an overview of the Alaska route she traveled in May and June. There is also a small tribute to the late Roger Payne at the end of the episode.
This week we checked in on the North Atlantic Right Whale breeding season. Meet the moms for this season and a little about their history!
There are multiple breeding areas off the Western North Pacific Ocean where humpback whales go to breed in the winter. We covered a recent paper that covers the use of Japanese waters by humpbacks in more detail.
We were so excited to talk to Belén for this episode about her work in Iceland. Belén is a marine biologist, wildlife guide, and sailor who works in the whale watching industry and runs a non profit focused on ocean conservation and education. She has also been an integral part of establishing the first Hope Spot in Iceland.
Slater is back from his safari trip to Kenya! After talking about whale sightings and safari sightings we chat about how hippos are indeed distant cousins of whales, how scientists figured that out, and what adaptations hippos and whales have to live their semi aquatic and marine lives.
This week Katlyn takes us through some information about humpback whale migration patterns in the Southern Hemisphere. After Slater came back from Tonga last summer we have been wanting to learn more about how the whales use Antarctica and travel between the feeding and breeding grounds.
Katlyn also added in a little snippet of whale song from Maui this season for you to enjoy during the sightings report.
Happy New Year!
Several birthing events for large whales in the North Pacific have been documented this winter. So we did a recap of the latest events in Mexico and California. We also covered a paper that gathered up reports over the past few decades of humpback whale births around the world.
This is our last episode of 2022. We talked through an early season update for Maui with some data from NOAA, observations on the water, and some news updates on Moon the humpback whale.
This week we get caught up on a few updates for everyone, including sharing some gratitude for you all. We are so grateful to everyone that listens to and supports the podcast!Also we chat about some interesting patterns of humpback whales moving around the Eastern North Pacific using some data from Happywhale and our observations on the water.
This week we had guest Andy Rogan on from Ocean Alliance. Andy is the Science Manager for the Ocean Alliance SnotBot program. We chatted about new technologies in whale research, drones and of course whale snot!
Whale sightings have still been going strong as whales are working their way South for winter season in the Northern Hemisphere. Katlyn took a trip to New York last week to be a part of the Safina Center annual gala event. We are so grateful to them for supporting the podcast this year. While she was there she went whale watching out of Brooklyn, so we took a little time to learn more about the whales that use the New York Bight.
Whale sightings have still been going strong as whales are working their way South for winter season in the Northern Hemisphere. Katlyn took a trip to New York last week to be a part of the Safina Center annual gala event. We are so grateful to them for supporting the podcast this year. While she was there she went whale watching out of Brooklyn, so we took a little time to learn more about the whales that use the New York Bight.
We chatted all things hydrophone this week with John Ryan from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). As you know, we are huge fans of the soundscape live stream and it was super fun to chat with one of the scientists who is central to the program. They recently published a paper using the hydrophone data to learn about how blue whales might be using acoustics to find large aggregations of krill in Monterey Bay.
We have had quite a few friendly humpback whale encounters over the past month. So we wanted to chat more about what makes an encounter "friendly" with a whale and what the experience is like. There hasn't been much science done to explain these encounters currently, but we did discuss what little information there is available.
Katlyn takes us through the basics of how sound moves in water. You can learn the definitions of how sound is characterized and how it's measured. Feel free to reference this episode later if you need a refresh on how this all works when we talk about whale acoustics in other episodes.
Slater is back from his trip to Tonga and we couldn't wait to talk about it! Hear about his experience swimming with humpbacks in a Southern Hemisphere breeding ground.
This week Katlyn did a little follow up on the fin whale story from Antarctica that we have been talking about throughout the summer. For more background you can start with Episodes 117 and 119 as a primer.
New studies with satellite and scar pattern data are shedding light on where fin whales are going in the winter months. Are these waters safe to transit? That really is the question.
This week Katlyn did a little follow up on the fin whale story from Antarctica that we have been talking about throughout the summer. For more background you can start with Episodes 117 and 119 as a primer.
New studies with satellite and scar pattern data are shedding light on where fin whales are going in the winter months. Are these waters safe to transit? That really is the question.
Competitive behaviors are ramping up in the Northern Hemisphere! Humpback whales have started practicing and engaging in competitive behaviors while still on the feeding grounds, so Katlyn takes us through the basics of what is actually happening during these encounters.
Competitive behaviors are ramping up in the Northern Hemisphere! Humpback whales have started practicing and engaging in competitive behaviors while still on the feeding grounds, so Katlyn takes us through the basics of what is actually happening during these encounters.
It’s been awhile since we had the chance to catch up on summer sightings in Monterey. We also had some sad news about a well known whale in California, Fran.
It’s been awhile since we had the chance to catch up on summer sightings in Monterey. We also had some sad news about a well known whale in California, Fran.
This week we chatted with Katherina Audley about humpback whales in Southern Mexico. For almost the last 10 years she has fostered an incredible community based effort to learn about and protect humpback whales and other marine life along the shores of Guererro. The Whales of Guererro Project has been a labor of love for her and the local community as they foster the next generation of people, whales, and tourism on the shorelines of the state of Guererro.
This week we chatted with Katherina Audley about humpback whales in Southern Mexico. For almost the last 10 years she has fostered an incredible community based effort to learn about and protect humpback whales and other marine life along the shores of Guererro. The Whales of Guererro Project has been a labor of love for her and the local community as they foster the next generation of people, whales, and tourism on the shorelines of the state of Guererro.
Our sightings report was a little bit shocking and has some adult humor. We talked quite a bit about what we think the killer whales off the California coast have been up to this summer. We also had some follow up information about the status of the vaquita population in Mexico. This weekend is international save the vaquita day.
After two rough winters in a row for the manatees in Florida around Indian River - we wanted to chat about the state of the response to help these animals. There has been money allocated to restore the sea grass beds in their habitat and supplemental feeding happened through the winter as well. What’s next for conservation efforts? Time will tell.
After two rough winters in a row for the manatees in Florida around Indian River - we wanted to chat about the state of the response to help these animals. There has been money allocated to restore the sea grass beds in their habitat and supplemental feeding happened through the winter as well. What’s next for conservation efforts? Time will tell.
We had a guest this week. Dr. Matthew Savoca joined us to talk about his work with marine plastics and baleen whale prey consumption. He is currently a post doc in the Goldbogen Lab at Hopkins Marine Station at Stanford University. The paper he was the lead author on in 2021 about baleen whale feeding capacity was one of the most mind blowing papers we have read in the past year.
Ted was back for another episode with us this week. This time around we chatted with him about his background with Cheesemans' Ecology Safaris and our upcoming trip to Antarctica. This is a small preview of what is to come this winter on our expedition to the Southern Continent. Tickets are still available and you can find more information about the trip here: https://cheesemans.com/trips/antarctic-peninsula-feb2023
Hundreds of fin whales gather in Antarctic hotspots in large feeding aggregations. This story has been in the news cycle off and on for months now. Groups as large as 150 fin whales were observed around Elephant Island. The paper with the published results of these 2018 and 2019 surveys came out this month. Are fin whales recovering in the Southern Ocean? Things seem to be headed that direction.
This week we talked about Indo Pacific bottlenose dolphins and their unique spa treatments. These animals in the Red Sea have figured out how to use corals and sponges to take care of their skin. This is the first time a cetacean species has been documented self medicating in the wild - fascinating!
We are so excited about our trip to Antarctica this winter! In preparation for our trip with Cheeseman's we have started to learn about the southern continent and we wanted to share some of it with you. We will cover southern hemisphere topics throughout the summer and fall as we continue to prepare for our trip. In this episode we talked about some introductory information about Antarctica and the whales that can be found there.
We have a couple announcements this week. The San Juan Islands trip has been postponed to October of 2023 - you can still book this trip on our website. We have also been invited to Antarctia! You can join us on this trip hosted by Cheesemans' Ecology Safaris. Check out more info about the trip here: https://cheesemans.com/trips/antarctic-peninsula-feb2023 Our topic this week was the latest information about offshore killer whales of the Eastern North Pacific. The paper we covered was information from a 26 year study period. Tagged whales and survey encounters show that they have an enormous range, varying group dynamics and incredible dive capabilities.
We had Dave Cade on this week to talk to us about whale and shark tagging. Dave has worked with rorqual whales all over the globe and is currently working on a basking shark project in Ireland. He also works with humpback and blue whales on the California coast most summers.
There are so many humpback whales on the California Coast right now! So it was only fitting that we talked about a new memo from NOAA about the status of humpback whales in the Mexico and Central American Distinct Population Segments (DPSs). The numbers have been adjusted and reanalysed to better reflect what is observed in movements of whales between the regions.
New mics! Can you tell the difference?
The nerds talk about recent sightings along the California coast including blue whales in Monterey! A recent paper from frontiers in marine science delves into blue whale body conditions and how it may be directly correlated to marine productivity. As blue whales stretch out along the west coast, and sightings become more unpredictable as they search for krill, what does this mean for the health of our marine ecosystems?
This week we talked about the final report from the Baja Lagoons in Mexico. The gray whale breeding season is ending on a higher note than years past, but still is not back to "normal" by any means. We also had some incredible sightings to catch up on from Monterey Bay and Santa Barbara: basking sharks, huge numbers of humpbacks, blue whales and more!
In Episode 109 We had a special guest Chase Dekker.
Chase was born and raised in Monterey, CA. He attended college in Washington at Western Washington State University where he studied Organismal Biology & Zoology. After college he lived in Jackson Hole, Wyoming with daily access to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. He now calls the Monterey area home, but has traveled the world guiding photography trips for many years. You can regularly find him out with Sanctuary Cruises in Moss Landing, CA and his photography has been published all over the place including the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington DC.
We just finished up our three day weekend of trips in Monterey Bay! Thank you so much to everyone who attended. We were so fortunate that the weather and the wildlife cooperated all weekend for us to get out on the water. Listen in for our sightings report.
This is our last episode before our April Killer Whale Trips!
We caught up on a few sightings before talking about some of the latest news on Hawaiian spinner dolphins. There have been many changes with regulations in Hawaii about viewing this species. We learned about the background information that led to the ruling and how big of a problem it was causing for the dolphins. Not everyone is happy about the final ruling from NOAA, and there is now a lawsuit being filed against them.
Slater and Adam are back from Baja! We caught up on the long list of sightings we had from Baja, California, and Maui. Then we talked about an article that has been making the rounds on social media about conjoined gray whale twins. The original stranding happened back in 2014, but since it's been in the newsfeed lately we decided to talk about it more in detail.
This week we talked about updated and new information in regards to humpback whales. Most of this information is from Hawaii, but some of it can be applied to humpback breeding grounds across the world. The most interesting new paper we talked about was the findings of two different humpbacks moving between Hawaii and Mexico in the same season! We still have spaces on all of our trips for April! Book tickets online at www.thewhalenerds.com
This week we took a little time to check in about all the things coming to whalenerds this spring. Our trips are filling quickly for spring whale watches in April. If you are thinking of booking - we recommend booking sooner rather than later! You can check out our site for more info www.thewhalenerds.com
We have also added a beach clean up to our calendar for Earth Day! Check out our website for more info or RSVP to our Facebook event for the clean up.
In other news - Slater & Adam will be in Baja off and on throughout the month. We can't wait to hear more about their adventures. Katlyn is closing out whale season as a new captain at PacWhale EcoAdventures in Lahaina. After whale season she is moving back to Monterey Bay! She will be driving as relief captain for Slater and at Blue Ocean Whale Watch. We're stoked all be back on the West Coast together for the summer season.
This week we talked about technology being applied in new ways to study marine mammals. We covered several articles about using satellite imagery to identify and count a variety of whale species around the world. We also talked about a cool new program with the Monterey Bay Aquarium, USGS and NASA to track sea otters in California. Applying AI to satellite technology could really be a game changer for studying marine mammals in remote areas.
This is our final episode in our three part series on climate news for our oceans and whales. We talked about how oceanographers are using whaling logs to create baseline data sets for our changing oceans. We also had a follow up on a few topics we had previously discussed in Episodes 100 & 101 and in previous episodes from earlier in the podcast. We ended with parts of an essay written about by an author talking about their obligation to express how dire our climate situation is, and how we need to act now to fix it.
We continued with our theme of climate news for this episode. Unfortunately it was not good news. Our topics mostly focused on how the arctic ecosystem is changing due to melting sea ice and less ice coverage in the region. Many animals are not handling the challenges of their changing environment well, but some animals like killer whales, are experiencing new habitats that they previously did not have access to. At the end of the episode we talked a little bit about solutions we can strive for and actions we can take to help reduce our impact on the climate crisis.
This week's topics were not really about whales, but we had plenty of announcements and whale sightings to catch up on to make up for it! After all of our announcements and reports, we talked about things in hot water. Our topics are about remnants of the warm water blob events in recent years that are still being studied and documented today. Many aspects of the marine ecosystem were affected by these warm water anomalies from seabirds, to kelp forests, and beyond.
Happy New Year! We took a look back at some memorable moments for us in 2021. Whalenerds as a brand and platform has grown so much, thanks to all of you! We can't wait to see what 2022 has in store for us.
Slater and Adam had quite the encounter with some less frequently sighted killer whales in Monterey Bay. They shared their experience on the episode this week. This is also a great time of year to remind everyone of the places you can see whales from shore as they migrate down the coasts of the US and around the Hawaiian islands. You can also see elephant seals from shore in California as they enter their breeding and pupping season. We wrapped up the episode talking about a recently announced unusual find off the California coast by MBARI - a Columbian mammoth tusk
This week we talked about the most endangered of all the right whale species - the North Pacific right whale. There are likely less than 60 of these whales across two populations in the North Pacific Ocean. We had some recent reports from NOAA about sightings and population estimates. We, of course, will keep looking and hoping that we see one someday.
We hope this episode doesn't actually find you the day after US Thanksgiving - because you're doing something awesome outside. But if it does, take a moment to appreciate nature and show the planet your gratitude - it works hard everyday to take care of us. Our topic this week is a slight break from the norm. We decided to share some stories and perspectives from indigenous people in the Alaskan arctic. We also talked about a Yupik historic site in the Russian arctic. We felt it was important to share these stories with you and that they are more than just stories. indigenous knowledge is rooted in living a life fully in tune with the cycles of our planet - a connection that still can baffle Western society. We encourage you to seek the truth of the indigenous people that originally lived in your area, honor them and learn a little about how they lived before colonial contact.
This is part two of our two part series that started last week. If you haven't listened to episode 94 - you might find it helpful to go back and listen to that one first. This week we built on the idea of ocean carbon sinks and talked about this concept of Blue Carbon. We wrapped up this episode with a new article about how much food baleen whales actually feed everyday. Spoiler alert - it's totally mind blowing!
This is part one of a two part series of episodes this week and next week. We talked about the oil spill that happened in California at the beginning of October. This led us to an article about a transient killer whale population that has been studied since they swam through the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. We wrapped up part one talking about how whales generate and promote life and how they can be sentinels for climate change.
Remember Erica from Episode 56? She's back and her book is out now! We had a little chat with her about the process of her book and she did a reading for us from her new book Thicker Than Water: The Quest for Solutions to the Plastic Crisis.
Wow.
That's the best three letters we can use to describe whalenerds weekend. Our first in person event was INCREDIBLE. We couldn't have asked for better weather, better people, or better whales. In this episode we recap the weekend for those of you who could not be there. If you want to join in on the fun with us in the spring - we are hosting three single day trips on April 22, 23, and 24 of 2022. Join us aboard the High Spirits in Moss Landing, CA. More trip information can be found on our website at thewhalenerds.com/trips
We are back after a week off! Everyone had great sightings since the last time we recorded and the excitement is growing for Whalenerds Weekend in just a few short weeks.
This week we talked about an article shedding some light on whales that were still killed by whalers even though they never made it to the ship for processing. It's an interesting and important aspect to consider when reflecting on the impact of whaling over our history.
After our host updates from our daily adventures on the water, the nerds take you through the history of right whales. The most rotund of the baleen whales, right whales have had a tough go in the modern world. After their rebound from the whaling era, the population of North Atlantic right whales has begun to take a turn. We talk about a paper that goes through the NARW's history, population estimates, and threats they face.
This week we took a little different strategy than our usual episodes. Instead of talking about news or research we told some stories and talked about sightings past and present. We are so excited for the trip in October, we can't wait to make new memories together during our favorite time of year in Monterey Bay
This week we talked quite a bit about sound, mostly from the frame of humpback whales. We all have been listening to the MBARI hydrophone off and on this week (let's be honest, we listen to it all the time) and this is the time of year that the humpbacks start to making vocalizations that sound more and more like song. We are so excited to have Research Specialist John Ryan from MBARI speak at Whalenerds Weekend next month! If you join the trip you can enjoy a dinner with him and Wil Oestrich, and ask them questions after their presentation. In the meantime, listen to the hydrophone like we do. https://www.mbari.org/soundscape-listening-room/ We also talked about some recent research papers about humpback whales singing on a feeding ground in the North Atlantic in the winter time, and some potential universal components of humpback whale calls that are consistent and persistent across time and space.
We had a special guest to go along with an incredible sightings report from Monterey Bay. This week Kate Cummings from Blue Ocean Whale Watch joined us to talk about all the action on the bay this summer. We are using her company for our trips during Whalenerds Weekend in October! To check out the trip and to make a booking please go to thewhalenerds.com/trips
Katlyn has had some pleasant sea conditions and plenty of humpbacks post Hurricane Henri but the report from Monterey Bay really stole the show. Slater, Adam and Kate witnessed a pretty rare event of killer whales hunting Risso's dolphins. They break down the entire day during the episode. We also talked briefly about a paper that described a playback study of killer whale calls to pilot whales and Risso's dolphins to go along with their sighting story.
This week we talked about the current state of ropeless fishing gear in the United States. Katlyn had a very interesting encounter on one of her trips recently that inspired this topic. Many strides have been made to improve fishing gear and make it safer for whales, but ropeless seems to be the way of the future.
This week’s theme was bottlenose dolphins! We covered news and recent papers from all over the world. Information about behaviors, communication, reproduction, conservation - and even a little drama and potential scandal! Bottlenose dolphins are much cooler and more interesting than most people give them credit for.
This week had an exciting announcement! Tickets for Whalenerds weekend are now on sale. You can purchase tickets for this event happening in October on our website thewhalenerds.com Our theme for this week’s episode is vaquitas. A sad but necessary topic. We talked about some research updates and recent news in regard to the fishing free zone in Mexico. The plight of the vaquita should be a lesson for all of us.
Reunited and it feels so good! Slater, Adam, and Katlyn were all back together for this episode. We spent a lot of time catching up and introducing a few projects that are in the works! Then we covered some new publications from this year about killer whales in the northern hemisphere.
We had a special guest this week. Rebecca Giggs, author of the book Fathoms: The World in the Whale joined us for this episode. We talked about her book and part of her journey while writing it. The book is out now as an audiobook and hardback, but will be released on paperback on July 20th.
We were able to chat with Josh Zeman - the journalist and narrator of the new film The Loneliest Whale - The Search for 52 for this week's episode. The film is now in theaters and will be available on digital on July 16th.
This week we had the chance to chat with one of our favorite authors Nick Pyenson! We absolutely love his book Spying on Whales. We talked about the book often in the earliest episodes of our podcast. It is a great set of stories about his work over the years as a scientist and paleontologist. Spying on Whales is available as an excellent audiobook but also in print in stores and online. Here is a link where you can purchase a physical copy of the book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/556686/spying-on-whales-by-nick-pyenson/
You can also check out the Pyenson Lab and their work here: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/research/paleobiology/research/pyenson-lab
We were granted early screening access to the new film The Loneliest Whale: The Search for 52. This is a story that we have touched on briefly in recent previous episodes. The film does a great job of showing how field research actually works with large whales. Whether you have heard of the legend of the 52 Hz whale or not you will learn and thing or two and enjoy the film!
This week we had artist and conservationist Tracie Megumi as a guest. We chatted with her about her work as an artist, and her work with Dolphin Project. Art, science, conservation are all things that we really believe should go hand in hand to reach the general public about protecting our oceans, and this was one of the main focuses of our discussion with Tracie.
Episode 80 - Flues & Blues
This week Katlyn and Slater discussed fin whale / blue whale hybrids and blue whale studies from across the Pacific. There is always more to learn about these two ocean giants - including that they interbreed! Flue, a well-documented fin whale / blue whale hybrid in California and Mexico was a prominent feature of a recent paper, but they are not alone out there in the world. We also talked about our recent sightings from California and Massachusetts.
This week we had the chance to chat with John Calambokidis from Cascadia Research Collective. It was quite a long chat, but as you can imagine, we can talk about whales all day! John is one of the large whale research rockstars in the whale world. We had so much fun talking with him about his work with blue whales and humpback whales. It was so inspiring to hear John talk about conservation and threats to large whales and what we can do to continue to protect these incredible animals.
This week our special guest was Ted Cheeseman. Ted has worked over the years as a guide, expedition leader, and trip organizer for Cheeseman's Ecology Safaris. He is also a cofounder of Happywhale, a community science project for whale photo identification. We talked all things Happywhale with Ted and had so much fun chatting with him!
Buckle up! This is a long one. Who knew we could talk about gray whales for over an hour?! In addition to talking about our sightings, we covered a wide variety of gray whale topics. We talked about possible historic breeding grounds in the Mediterranean, Atlantic gray whales, vessel strike risk, migration pace in the North Pacific, and the final season report from San Ignacio and Magdalena Bay lagoons in Baja.
In this episode we caught up on a few weeks of sightings from California for Adam and Slater and sightings from Massachusetts for Katlyn. We also talked about some on going news stories that we have been following from the North Atlantic. The killer whales and boat interactions off the coast of Spain and Portugal are still occurring and there have been guidelines published for mariners transiting those waters. There have also been some sightings of a gray whale in the Mediterranean.
This week we talked about some news stories from earlier in the spring with sightings of killer whales and a humpback whale in the Gulf of Mexico. We also talked about some general information about marine mammals in the gulf. Lastly we talked about a recent paper that came out on modeling habitats for cetaceans in the Gulf of Mexico. This was a fun break from the normal set of news and places that we cover on our episodes.
Secrets of the whales airs today! Here is a little teaser from us. Feel free to listen before you watch, but be warned there are one or two small spoilers in there. Let us know what you think of the series! Happy Earth Day.
This is a special minisode! A little different than our normal routine. We were able to have a zoom call interview with Brian Skerry (photographer and story teller) and Raphaelle Thibaut (composer) from Secrets of the Whales. This 4 part series airs on Disney + on April 22, but is also a recently released book and next month’s National Geographic Magazine cover story. We are so grateful for the opportunity to sit down with Brian and Raphaelle and briefly talk to them about the series. There are a few spoilers in there! So fair warning. We also have previewed the entire series and can’t wait to share more with you all soon!
In this episode we talked about a marine mammals species that we don’t talk about very often, manatees. We gave a brief overview of all manatee species and then focused primarily on the Florida manatee, a sub species of West Indian manatee. They have been in the new recently due to a large number of animals dying this winter in Florida in particular. We also talked about some updates with our hosts and a follow up on the sperm whale article we talked about last episode.
This week the main topics we talked about were focused on understanding human emotions while creating effective science communication strategies, conservation campaigns and understanding the opinions that influence policies and regulations. Human emotions plays a big role in the receptiveness of conservation messaging and policies. We discussed how important it is to consider this dimension when crafting our science communication. Southern Resident killer whales and their food web were a case study that we talked about. We also covered a few news topics including sperm whale cultural transmission of hunting evasion techniques and North Atlantic right whale calves.
In this episode we had some ocean news including an article on cuttlefish intelligence, dolphins in the Potomac River and an update on the North Atlantic right whales. Adam is officially back on the water, so we get to hear about ocean adventures from all four hosts! We also discussed a recent paper on vessel behavior and humpback whales in Maui Nui, a summary paper on soundscape in the ocean and a recent paper on diet in Southern resident killer whales. Thanks for listening!
In this Episode we discussed several articles talking about the research and observations that are coming out of the “andropause” that humanity has done during the COVID-19 crisis. Humans have shifted where they are in the environment during this time of isolation and crisis. What will we learn from this in regards to the environment? We also talked about our sightings and Slater is back on the water! There was some exciting/bittersweet news from the Pacific Northwest also - L pod welcomed a new calf recently.
In this episode, we covered a few news items about cloning efforts with endangered weasels and whale fossils, because they were fun and new developments in science. We gave a recap of Whale Tales virtual event day 1. A lot of the talks were about whale songs, including a mind-blowing one from Roger Payne. More to come from Whale Tales in future episodes. We also had some updates on the status of North Atlantic Right Whale protections and an unfortunate update about one of the mom calf pairs from this season.
In this episode we covered a report that came out last fall about what whale watchers looked for in a whale watch tour operator, and their contributions to the local economy surrounding Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. We also had an update about the killer whales that have been attacking boats in the Canary Islands and a Gray Whale UME update.
We also discussed the new mask mandate from the US Coast Guard for all vessels. There are also some virtual events coming up based in Maui this month through Pacific Whale Foundation that you can check out! And yes, for those of you who have been waiting for an update - Eric found a badger! Finally! We closed out the episode with a few book recommendations.
In this episode, we unpacked a few more scientific papers as a follow-up to our conversations about the southern resident's killer whales. We also talked about the Senate hearings in Washington state that took place this past week about salmon habitat restoration and the commercial whale watching license program. We shared our thoughts on this frustrating situation. After this episode, we will be moving on from covering the situation in the Salish Sea so heavily and go back to covering it from a new standpoint. That way we can back to more of our regularly scheduled topics on our episodes. If you are looking for ways to get involved with things going on in the Salish Sea for Southern Resident Killer Whales, we are happy to direct you to organizations that are doing work up there.
In this episode we checked in with our friends Sara and Jeff from Maya's Legacy on San Juan Island. We talked to them about what whale watching has been like since COVID started. Sharing a border with Canada, reductions in travel, and shelter in place orders have made life complicated and interesting for the boat based ecotourism operations in the Salish Sea. On top of all of that, there is a whole new set of regulations coming in to play for viewing Southern resident killer whales. There is a lot of misinformation out there about what this means for whale watching in the Pacific Northwest, so we hope this episode clarifies a few things for folks. You can indeed still see plenty of whales, including killer whales, in the Salish Sea on a whale watch tour despite the changes in regulations. One of the best thoughts to come from our discussion in regard to whale watching, the plight of the Southern residents, and salmon stocks was: we all want more fish - fisherman and whale watchers should really be pooling resources to move the needle on government regulations together. We had a few announcements for upcoming online events too!
In this episode we talked about some whale news including updates on North Atlantic right whales, manatees, and upcoming conferences. We also talked about a film project that Adam was involved in and the Octopus Teacher. Katlyn also had a recommendation for the film I Am Greta on Hulu. We had some great discussions around the contributions of whales to the environment and how they contribute more to the terrestrial ecosystem than we originally realized. We also shared information about a new paper that was published in regard to vessel distance and foraging disruption in Southern resident killer whales and had a lengthy discussion about it afterward. If you were to sum up the main discussions we had, we were wrestling with what is the cost vs benefits of healthy and unhealthy whale populations and watching them as an ecotourism industry. Big questions to grapple with, but we hope to continue those conversations.
Happy new year! We covered a lot of whale news in this episode. Some of it was good news and some of it was less good... We covered right whale news, whale watching regulations in Washington, blue whales and more!
We also have news! Katlyn is back in Maui. It’s been an interesting turn of events this fall with the Hawaiian islands reopening - so she decided to give it a try. We will keep you posted on how things go in California and Maui as the winter progresses. Please stay safe and healthy!
This is our last episode of 2020. We answered questions that were sent to us by listeners over the past few weeks. We talked about where are good places to take kids whale watching, migration route and feeding ground changes due to climate change, camera settings that we use, and recent whale sightings. We also got off on a few tangents including some conservation topics and science communication.
Thank you so much for your support this year! Especially our patreon supporters have a great holiday season and stay safe and healthy.
This episode was packed with lots of whale news! We had all kinds of updates about right whales, whale calves, whales in new places, a new species of whale, and more. This led us to a discussion about how cetaceans and humans co-exist and how we can do that better.
\This week we talked more about Adam’s background in his whale/marine career. Eric also just took a road trip up to Oregon and Washington. So we were all feeling nostalgic about our trips and times spent in the Pacific Northwest. We also talked about some recent pieces of whale news and our most recent sightings and adventures.
We have an exciting announcement! We have officially added a new cohost to the whalenerds team. We want to introduce you to Adam Ernster. He has been on the podcast as a guest a few times with us but now he will be on with us regularly. Listen in to minisode 6 to hear more about him. We are looking forward to working with Adam and bringing some new momentum to whalenerds over the next few months.
In this episode, we all checked in from up and down the California coast and Delaware! Katlyn is working a boat delivery on the East Coast at the moment. We talked about the boat delivery and recent trips in addition to some updated whale news. There was a cool match from the Southern Hemisphere from Happywhale, the orca attacks on boats near Portugal are continuing, and we talked about a call to action for a new proposal involving whale watching of Southern Resident Killer Whales.
Happywhale match: https://www.facebook.com/972752052758961/posts/3838778372822967/?d=n https://happywhale.com/individual/25891
Proposal regarding whale watching of Southern Residents: https://wdfw.wa.gov/species-habitats/at-risk/species-recovery/orca/rule-making
We had Amanda Padilla as a special guest this episode and Adam Ernster as a fill in co-host! We talked with Amanda about her work on boats in Maui, her commercial fishing business and her awesome new sun gear company: Kapa Sungear! We had a lot of fun on this one, and got in to some serious, but good tangents about sustainability, and sustainable consumerism and business practices. You can check out Amanda's company at kapasungear.com
We debriefed Slater's all day trip with three people who were there! Slater, Eric and Adam all gave a recap of the trip. Katlyn also chimed in about her trips. We also chatted more with Adam about whale watching in Santa Barbara. A piece of whale news that we talked about was the new paper and designation of the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETPs) Killer Whales as a new ecotype of Killer Whales.
The gang's all here! Eric, Slater, and Katlyn were finally able to get together and catch up with each other. We talked about our reactions to the film A Life on Our Planet and recent whale news. We also tuned in to the livestream of the R/V Nautilus online and watched them collect a few invertebrates off of Anacapa Island.
In this episode we caught up with Slater after several months. We talked about how things have changed for him in the wake of the pandemic. Katlyn also had a few updates from back when she was laid off and some of her adventures in Massachusetts including a recent trip to the New Bedford Whaling Museum.
The band is back together! We had Eric and Slater back on as hosts with our special guest Erica Cirino. Erica works as a free lance writer and artist who often covers and shares stories about wildlife and human impacts. She has sailed across the gyres of the Pacific and Atlantic documenting and studying microplastics and plastic debris in our oceans. She is currently working on a book that will cover some of her experiences with her trips and impacts of humans on the planet in regard to plastic debris.
We are recording from all over the country via skype - occasionally there are some audio issues due to that.
Katlyn and Jamie have been off the water for a few days due to poor weather. So they made a podcast episode together! As some of you know, Katlyn is out in Gloucester, Massachusetts working with Jamie at Cape Ann Whale Watch. We talked about how Jamie got started in the marine world, her involvement at the Texas Sea Life Center and her job at Cape Ann Whale Watch. We also talked about her favorite individual humpbacks and how whale naming works in the Gulf of Maine.
We did have a little technical difficulty with the recording - so about 8 minutes if the audio sounds a little different in the middle of the episode.
Welcome back everyone! After a hiatus we are back with a new episode. Thank you so much for sticking with us throughout this wild time. For our first minisode back Katlyn gave us an introduction to the new area she is working in: Gloucester Massachusetts.
In this episode Katlyn and Eric talk about all the common hitchhikers on whales and dolphins - we even threw in manatees!
We talked about whale barnacles, whale lice, remoras, pennella and the various species they are observed on.
The only obvious hitchhiker we forgot was diatoms!
This is the final episode of the three part series on whale song! This episode covers all mysticetes that sing besides humpback whales. While researching this episode, most of the journals had their articles on open or free access. Take advantage while you can! This may change back to pay walls once academic operations go back to "normal" post pandemic.
Stay safe and healthy out there.
Part 2 of the series on whale song.
Do we know why the winged whale sings? The long and short of it is, we don't. But Katlyn broke down some of the leading theories from over the years of what scientists have studied. This is a broad summary of some of the leading theories as to why humpback whales in particular might sing.
Introducing minisodes!
During this time we are not able to go out on the water - so we are launching mini episodes. These minisodes are more condensed information about one particular topic. If you have suggestions for topics - send them to us via instagram or facebook.
This first minisode is part of a three part series on whale song. This first part is: How whale song saved a species. Katlyn researched the historic timeline of whale song and when it was first made available to the public, and how the public reacted to it afterward.
All the resources from this minisode will be posted on the facebook page.
Stay safe out there!
We are all locked down and laid off! But we had quite a few sightings to report from all our trips before the shut downs. Slater did manage to almost get a full week in on his Baja trip before having to cancel it all.
We also covered a few whale news items. The partial birth of a humpback whale in Maui from February - the mom and baby we re-sighted! Six weeks later and both appear healthy! We also talked about killer whales chasing some sei whales in to shallow water in Chile, a dwarf sperm whale startled by a seal or sea lion and right whales and a harp seal being sighted from shore in Cape Cod.
Stay safe out there!
We had another special guest this week! Robbie Mueller has been one of our longtime listeners and was our first supporter on patreon. We are so honored by his support of our work.
Robbie was inspired by a whale watch trip he went on in Alaska and by listening to our podcast to become more involved in the field of marine mammal science. He is currently working on his Master's degree at Texas A&M Corpus Cristi and did an internship with AIMM Portugal last summer working with dolphin studies! He had a great experience out there and we got to chat with him about his internship. It went so well that he is headed back there this summer to work for a longer part of the field season as a research assistant.
AIMM Portugal is still looking for interns this season. If you are interested in applying, check out the info at this link: https://www.aimmportugal.org/dolphin-research-internship
This week we were able to chat with Dr. Robin Baird from Cascadia Research Collective!
Robin works primarily on odontocete species around the Hawaiian Islands. We asked him questions about his work, funding, past studies and how he got involved in marine biology in the beginning.
Check out his projects at this web address: http://www.cascadiaresearch.org/projects/hawaii
Slater and Katlyn have some announcements to make!
Slater just launched his new apparel line: Open Seas Co. https://openseasco.com/
Katlyn just accepted a job for the summer at Cape Ann Whale Watch! She will be in Gloucester from mid-May to October. There are internship positions open if you want to join her out there volunteering this summer!
We also covered our recent sightings and some whale news on the following topics: ACS Monterey Bay meeting with John Ryan, Killer Whale sightings in Lebanon and Israel, stranded fin whale in Cornwall update, tail sailing behavior in humpbacks, and an internship in Alaska monitoring belugas.
We have activated our facebook page and will be using that to share our episode, but also our resources for our episode content so you can follow along! https://www.facebook.com/whalenerds/
It was Slater's turn to come back to Maui this time! We had a great week of whale watching, snorkeling and island adventures.
We also went through some whale news and a quick recap of the Maui Whale Day events and Whale Tales Conference.
It's Eric's turn to visit Maui! He has had some amazing whale watch trips in addition to land sightings of turtles and chameleons! We also had quite a bit of recent whale news including an abandoned humpback calf in O'ahu and the recording of underwater footage of a partial humpback birthing event here in Maui!
Wow! It has been a year since we started this podcast. Thank you SO MUCH!
This episode we talked about our latest sightings, some recent whale and ocean news, and whale snot!
This episode is also available via video format for our followers on patreon. If you want to see our antics while recording then join us on there!
patreon.com/whalenerds
We had loads of whale news for this episode. Everything from dolphin by catch protests, solar flares in correlation with live strandings of whales to tracking whales from space via satellite. We also caught up on our recent sighings from California and Maui.
We also got a heart warming message on instagram from one of our listeners about how we have inspired her to pursue her cetacean aspirations. Thank you so much for the feedback! If you have been inspired to pursue your whale dreams after listening to our podcast, we want to hear about it!
We are all wrapped up with our holiday fun! Happy New Year to all of our listeners!
We all had a few whale watch updates from Monterey and from Maui. We also wrapped up 2019's journey as a podcast briefly and talked about all we had learned about whales this year! Nick Pyenson wrote a nice article for The Washington Post about all the cetacean discoveries we made this year that we skimmed through for you. We also wandered our way through other interesting sightings and updates.
The podcast turns a year old soon, and we have had thousands of you tune in so far. THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Slater and Katlyn gave a final update from Slater's visit in Maui. We also all covered recent sighting reports from Monterey and Maui.
The rest of the episode we talked about the latest whale news and papers.
Thank you all for following along with us this year! Happy holidays. Please have a safe and enjoyable holiday season.
Slater migrated to Hawaii! Slater met up with Katlyn in Maui to come and see the humpbacks in early season. We had a great trip together for sunset in Lahaina. We also attended at talk about deep sea corals. We also have a special guest Amber Caldwell. She moved from Monterey with Katlyn to work for Pacific Whale Foundation. This is her first whale season so we asked her about her experience thus far and her first sightings of the season in Maui.
Eric talked about his recent sightings and a talk he attended about the white shark cafe.
We are back after the holiday weekend. Weather has been pretty tough this week in Monterey so Eric and Slater haven't been out on the ocean too much lately. Katlyn was able to go out on snorkel trips and whale watch trips out in Maui.
Great humpback action in Monterey Bay when the weather is manageable. Whales are starting to arrive in Maui too! Pretty soon there will be loads of whales for Katlyn to report in on.
We also caught up on some of the latest whale news from around the world. Hoping the weather clears soon for the Monterey crew! If not maybe they will all have to reunite in Maui. ;)
Thanks for your patience during our hiatus! Katlyn is getting settled in on Maui, Slater just got back from San Juan Islands and Eric has been holding down the fort in Monterey but he did make it out to the Farallon Islands last week!
Listen in to hear us catch up with each other on all our adventures. We are starting to get in to a routine and we were successful with recording via skype so we should be back on a regular posting schedule soon!
We had a special guest this week! Taylor came and visited for Slater's all day trip and then came back to record an episode with us. He started in Southern California, then Hawaii and then San Juan Islands. We chatted with him about his experience and how he got his start. He is headed back to Maui next week!
Eric, Slater and Katlyn had an incredible experience earlier this week with humpbacks during an earthquake in the bay too!
We all went to Slater's all day trip! We had an awesome time with some great whale people. We caught up on recent sightings and a little but of whale news as well.
We had Adam Ernster as a special guest today since Eric was out of town again! He gave us a run down of his summer experience in the San Juan Islands.
We also briefly talked about sightings in Monterey. Slater's all day trip is tomorrow and we are all going to be on it!
We also discussed the pros and cons of whale watching, new regulations in the Salish Sea, the use of drones and photo rights as boat crew.
Eric is back from his trip in the North Atlantic! We heard all about his cruise through Norway, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland and Canada. We also all gave an updated sighting report from Monterey. We will all be on Slater's all day trip on October 11th - there are a few seats left - join us!
Katlyn FINALLY SAW CASPER. After years of poor timing, she got to see Casper twice in the same trip. Katlyn is also moving to Maui at the end of the month! She is taking a job at Pacific Whale Foundation starting the first week of November.
Slater is back from his trip to the San Juan Islands! What an incredible two days he had for his group up there. Katlyn was holding down the fort in Monterey and Eric is still on his trip in the Atlantic. We chatted about some of Slater's take aways and reflections from his latest trip up north.
We also talked about some conservation topics and a little bit of politics toward the end - register to vote friends!
Slater and Katlyn are holding down the fort in Monterey while Eric is on vacation. We caught up on recent whale reports including Slater's recent trip on the whale entanglement response this week. Loads of blue whales have shown up this week south of Monterey!
We answered a question from one of our instagram followers. Katlyn also reported in on the law we referenced when we talked about Long Gone Wild called the Orca Welfare and Safety Act for the state of California.
Big thank you to everyone that has been following along with us! We appreciate all your messages, listens, downloads, follows and patreon contributions!
We are back after a two week hiatus! We have been pretty busy with work and had a hard time coordinating our schedules.
We covered a lot of topics and sighting reports to catch up from where we left off in Episode 34. We took a whale quiz sent to us from one of our followers. We also talked about fossils, mola species, new beaked whale species, a ship strike incident in the port of San Francisco, marine debris and an update on the warm water blob event happening off shore.
SPOILER ALERT! We talk about the new film Sea Of Shadows for most of this episode. If you don't want us to ruin some of the suspense, watch the film before you listen to this episode. We also gave our usual whale report from Monterey. Eric also had some info on an internship opportunity with Cascadia Research Collective.
We are late this week because Eric and Katlyn have been slammed with work! August is the busiest month in Monterey for whale watching and we have had such nice weather that all of our trips have been getting out. We had a few pieces of humpback whale news this week from California and Oregon.
Weather and whale watching has been incredible in Monterey this week. Get out on the water if you can! (anywhere really)
We attempted our first round of marine mammal trivia. Please send us more questions so Slater can quiz us!
We also gave an updated whale report and some tips on what to do when you see an entangled whale in the US.
This week we talked about the movie Long Gone Wild that just came out this month. We all watched it together last week.
We also gave a recent sightings report from Monterey.
Next week Slater wants to quiz Eric and Katlyn on whale trivia so send him some questions on instagram!
Whale action is ramping up in a big way this week in Monterey! We all had great trips this last week.
We had several questions about dolphins from our followers on instagram. Eric also found a cool paper about bottlenose dolphins and melon headed whales.
Slater is back from his awesome trip up in the San Juan Islands. He had excellent weather conditions and excellent sightings! Eric and Katlyn had great trips from Monterey as well. Yes, Eric saw a leatherback sea turtle while Katlyn was out on the water... and she did not get to see it. :(
We answered a few questions from our instagram followers this week! We covered some topics about marine resources and news, hydrophones and our heroes in our field. We also talked about happywhale.com.
We covered a little bit of everything in this episode! The day we recorded this episode was International Vaquita Day. The new film about the plight of the vaquita called Sea of Shadows premiers world wide on July 12th.
We gave a recent update of whale watching in Monterey Bay and some updates from San Juan Islands. The day this episode airs, Slater will be touching down in the Pacific Northwest! Sounds like all the Southern Residents might be back in the Salish Sea.
We also talked about some recent bird sightings in the harbor and the bay. We answered a question about the role food availability plays in whale migration from one of our listeners toward the end of the episode.
If you have listening to all the episodes up to this point, comment on our instagram post with you favorite species of whale! @whalenerds
This week we talked about the 2018 whale entanglement report from NOAA in addition to other whale news. We talked about beluga whales being moved to a whale sanctuary in Iceland and the recent coverage of the narluga skull that was in the news.
We also gave an updated trip report from Monterey Bay - lots of humpbacks and dolphins!
Thank you to Robbie, our newest Patreon follower!
Send us your topics and questions on instagram @whalenerds.
We all had an excellent week of sightings this week! We have seen killer whales most days out in the bay. Katlyn got to see killer whales attack and chase Pacific whitesided dolphins. Eric has encounters with several different matrelines including some killer whales from the Pacific Northwest. All three of us were able to go on the boat together this week as well and watch two groups of killer whales socialize and even some mating behaviors.
We had a question come in about swimming with wild cetaceans this week - we discussed our thoughts after our trip reports. We also chatted about a few other recent whale new items.
Welcome gifts have arrived for our patreon followers! If you sign up you will receive one from us.
This week we talked about famous whales and dolphins, historical and present, from all around the world. We also gave a trip report from Monterey Bay. Eric and Slater had some great whales, killer whales and dolphins out on the bay. Katlyn taught middle schoolers about ocean animals this week from land too!
What famous whales and dolphins do you know about that we didn't get to mention? Send us a DM on instagram and let us know about famous cetaceans!
We had another special guest this week! We welcomed Pete on to the podcast - he's new to the Monterey area and has joined on as a naturalist and deckhand with a whale watch company. We asked him about his previous experience and wildlife tours in New Zealand.
Sightings in Monterey Bay have been excellent lately! Eric, Pete and Slater have had several great encounters with the CA 51's, a well known family of killer whales this week. Slater and Katlyn also participated in the Monterey World Ocean's Day Beach Clean-Up on Saturday.
Special shout-out to our first patreon follower! Thank you Maria for supporting our work on patreon.com/whalenerds
We are a little behind schedule this week, but for good reason! Slater took off to San Juan Islands last minute this weekend for a quick trip up north. He had an excellent trip up there and got to see a rare young killer whale!
Eric also had an incredible and rare sighting of Baird's beaked whales in Monterey! Katlyn saw three blue whales last week too. Exciting things!
As a reminder the beach clean up in Monterey is this weekend, Saturday June 8th 2019 from 11:30am-1:30pm. World Ocean's Day is Saturday June 8th so do something nice for the ocean regardless of where you are!
This week we caught up on the recent whale watching reports from Monterey Bay and the north bound gray whale migration which has been a re-occuring topic.
We also chatted about the issue of marine debris in the ocean. We have two solutions we are going to work on as the whalenerds: participate in a beach clean up and we are going to promote whalenerds reusable water bottles!
We have designed a reusable water bottle that will be made available for our patreon followers! If you subscribe to our podcast for a monthly fee, this will be your first exclusive gift! More details about the benefits of the patreon program will be coming in a future episode and on our instagram account @whalenerds.
Beach Clean Up details:
World Oceans Day Beach Clean-Up
6/8/19
11:30am-1:30pm at Del Monte Beach next to municipal wharf 2
Hosted by Discovery Whale Watch, Portola Hotel, Whalenerd's Podcast and the MCCVB. Sponsored by Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch and Rise.
RSVP link: https://www.facebook.com/events/633111643828387/
We had some friends visit us in Monterey for a few days! Sarah and Jeff from Maya's Legacy in Washington joined us for an episode during their visit. We all chatted about the trips they went on in Monterey, including Slater's All Day trip.
Sarah and Jeff shared a lot of information about their experiences with whale watching in the Salish Sea. They also shared a lot of information about the Southern resident killer whales and the new regulations surrounding watching them.
Katlyn is back from her trip to Massachusetts! The day she left there was a gray whale predation event in Carmel Bay which Slater, Eric and Katlyn all got to see at some point during the day. Slater got on it first on the boat and the Katlyn drove down to watch from land, when Eric got off work he went down there to check it out too!
While in Massachusetts Katlyn had great sightings of whales from a boat and on land! She got to see all the things on her wish list: Atlantic Whitesided Dolphins, Sei Whales (lunge feeding) and North Atlantic Right Whales! Slater and Eric had a great week of whale watching in Monterey as well.
Whale watching action is great all over the Northern Hemisphere! Get out on the ocean if you get a chance - or look for land if you are in the right place.
Eric is back for this episode! He gave us the full report from the gray whale predation that he was watching while we recorded episode 18. Slater also had a great encounter with the 51's, 51A's, 49C and 50B this week. Killer whale season is ramping up in Monterey Bay! Katlyn's cool sighting for the week was the early morning salp invasion in Monterey harbor.
We had some random facts thrown in there about oarfish, salps, killer whale families, recent news about the beluga with a harness, and a few other topics. Katlyn takes off for Massachusetts to hopefully see Northern right whales and sei whales this week! Eric and Slater are hoping for a great week with killer whales as well.
We had another special guest this week! We are also missing one host. :( Eric was still out on the water the night we recorded until sunset - he was watching the first gray whale predation of the spring season! We can't wait to hear his report next episode.
Slater had his first spring all day trip this past week and whale watching action around the bay has been awesome. Our guest Eva was visiting from the UK and went whale watching all week. She is working on her master's on blue whale genetics at the University of Cambridge. We chatted with her about her background in whales and her project - it was a little science-y for Slater!
We had our second special guest this week! Adam Ernster, one of our podcast listeners has been whale watching in Monterey a few times the past month or so and he recently started a new job in Santa Barbara.
Adam claims that he had the best whale watch week ever last week, so we made him give us his trip reports to prove it! He did get to see Southern Resident killer whales, CA 122 transient killer whales, basking sharks and false killer whales. We must say - that was pretty awesome!
This week we compiled trip reports from several places around the US that were interesting to us. Right whales in Massachusetts, basking sharks and killer whales in Santa Barbara, blue whales in Newport and all the fun in Monterey Bay.
Slater and Katlyn went to a screening of the documentary Mission Blue which Sylvia Earle was in attendance for! Eric and Slater also chatted about the new Netflix series Our Planet.
We talked about killer whales in Monterey Bay as the season is starting to pick up here. Eric also had the chance to see a harbor seal birth at the Hopkins rookery last week! Spring time is starting to get exciting in central California!
Our first special guest was Kate Cummings! She is the owner and operator of Blue Ocean Whale Watch in Moss Landing, CA. Kate was one of the passengers on the recent Cheeseman's Ecology Safaris trip to Antarctica! She gave us an excellent report about her two week trip where she saw whales, penguins, pinnipeds, and lots of ice!
We were so jealous after listening to her report! She had an excellent trip and the weather cooperated for most of the time they were there too.
Katlyn just got back from Baja yesterday! She gave a report about all the logistics of the trip and all the whales she saw! Yes, she did get to pet a gray whale. San Ignacio lagoon was incredible!
Meanwhile, Slater and Eric had an absolutely insane week in Monterey! Humpbacks had already been coming in to the bay before Katlyn left, but they have settled in and really been feeding all week!. There have been huge groups of dolphins as well. Slater finally got to see a large group of northern right whale dolphins.
The biggest and best sighting of the week was SOUTHERN RESIDENT KILLER WHALES! L-pod was sighted in the bay on March 31st 2019! This was an incredible sighting of a highly endangered population of killer whales that normally inhabit the surrounding areas of the Salish Sea and southern Canada.
Also, Eric saw an otter eat a bird.
We started off this episode talking about lone male killer whales. That conversation led us to a broader conversation about killer whale social groups and defining Bigg's / transient killer whales.
Then we answered a question about comparing whale sizes to everyday objects. For example, a humpback whale is the same length as a school bus!
We also talked about recent whale sightings in California. We can't wait for the spring to be in full swing!
The next episode will be delayed by 1 day to hear Katlyn's recap from Baja on April 2nd when she gets back.
Slater gave us a recap of his incredible trip to Baja. He was able to swim with whale sharks and California sea lions on the same day! He also had two days with friendly gray whales and Frigate birds. There was also a sea turtle research project that the trip participants were able to assist with for green sea turtles.
We also gave a run down of a few recent whale new items. The man who got swallowed by a whale in South Africa and the recent paper that came out about beaked whales and sperm whales diving to the bottom of the Atacama Trench.
We also gave a quick recap of the current whale watching events in California. All along the coast is awesome! Get out on the water if you can.
Eric and Katlyn gave a quick recap of a Friend's of Hopkins event last week with Ray Troll. He spoke about his new book that he illustrated about fossils on the West Coast of North America. Katlyn also attended an art and science event at Moss Landing Marine Labs last week that she gave a quick summary about.
We shared some recent whale news from this week. The first story was about the sighting of type D Killer Whales off the coast of Cape Horn. We also talked about the Blue Whale migration paper published from Oregon State University while answering a question from a listener.
We took a few questions from Instagram to end the episode. We weighed in on our opinion of whales in captivity. We answered a follow up question about whale migration. There was a question about white sharks and feeding on whales or stalking whales. We had a message about the CA 51's so we just ranted about that group of Killer Whales for a few minutes. A great question came in about how to support research and conservation even if you live far away from the ocean. Lastly we talked about whale reproduction and birthing in the wild.
Thanks for sending in your questions! We are having lots of fun getting those through Instagram. We will be switching to publishing episodes on Mondays only from now on as the whale season gets busy for us here in Monterey.
Eric gave us a report of the screening of the movie Scars from the ACS LA meeting this week. Slater and Katlyn gave a recap of the ACS Monterey Bay meeting which was a talk about Pacific Walrus.
We also answered two questions from our instagram followers. The first one was about interspecies interactions between cetaceans and non cetaceans - we threw in some leatherback sea turtle info too! The second question we answered was about whale migration patterns.
Thanks for the feedback and questions! Keep them coming!
We took more questions from our instagram followers! Thanks for sending those in to us.
We weighed in on the Orca vs Killer Whale naming debate to get this episode started!
We had a great question about the current status of ship strikes and entanglements for large whales as well.
We also addressed some topics that we get asked frequently about photography and how to best prepare for a whale watch trip. This lead us into a discussion of identifying individual whales, dolphins and even sea lions using photo identification.
In this episode we talked about how we all got our start in the whale realm. We all currently work in the whale watch industry in Monterey, but none of us started there!
Listen in on how we all ended up in the industry and how we got to Monterey. We hope this episode inspires you to follow your passions too!
We have been loving all your questions and topic suggestions - keep sending them our way. We are also adding to the resource page on the podbean site for y'all to check out as well.
We had more questions from Instagram for this episode! We started things off with your questions about whale lifespans, pilot whales in California and where to watch Killer Whales. Thanks for sending those in! It's super fun to hear your inquiries.
After answering some questions, we chatted about our favorite whale movies and books! We are also building up a resource list on our site so you can access them at anytime. If you have resource suggestions send them our way!
We decided to start things off with questions from you! Thanks for sending in questions through our Instagram story this week! Keep the topic suggestions and questions coming in.
Things started off with our favorite whales and went down the rabbit hole from there! We did a fun lightning round about things we have seen that we thought the other co-hosts had not seen. Animals included: whales, dolphins, beaked whales, sharks, turtles and seabirds.
We had a great question about humpback whale dialects and we elaborated about humpback whale culture and sighting histories.
We ended things talking about sharks (one of our secret favorites) in California, especially the juvenile white sharks in the central coast.
We hit y'all with some fun vocabulary too! Watch out for those new and exciting words!
As we mentioned at the end of Episode 4 - here are the weird whale facts!
We went through as many lesser known whale facts as we could think of in this episode. We covered narwhal tusks, ambergris, whale lice, barnacles and so much more! This episode was super fun and we definitely have more fun whale facts to talk about in future episode too.
Have some whale facts you would like us to talk about more? Other topic suggestions? Let us know on instagram! @whalenerds
We went wayyyy back for this one. Slater and Katlyn have been listening to a book about whales but written from a paleontologist's point of view. This inspired us to talk about how whales started as mammals on land and went back to the water. Eric dropped some fossil knowledge on us about where to find marine fossils in California and look at them in museums too.
We also meandered our way through whale bones, vestigial legs and whale evolution. We talked about whale strandings that we have seen on beaches in California. Lastly, we briefly covered some interesting whale adaptations that are on whales that currently exist today.
We made a new version of episode 3! Thanks for sticking with us through the technical difficulties - we are still learning!
We changed gears for the topics - we will circle back to the land based whale watching conversation in a future podcast. This time we started off talking about the difference between mysticetes and odontocetes and things got more specific from there. Topics shifted to whale earwax and how scientists can study a whale's whole life from the wax! We finished things up by talking about the stationary hydrophone in Monterey Bay and the sounds whales make underwater.
This week Eric and Katlyn gave a recap of the Southern California Marine Mammal Workshop to start off the episode. We also heard from Eric about his recent trip to Florida to swim with Manatees. We also took a question from one of our followers about rare sightings in California / Eastern North Pacific.
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Episode 1 - Whale watching in California and the gray whale migration.
We talked about whale watching up and down the California coast based on our experiences in the field. We each gave our perspective on the gray whale migration along the coast and how it varies by location during the north and southbound journeys.
Meet the hosts!
Katlyn Taylor - Marine Biologist
Eric Austin Yee - Marine Biologist
Slater Moore - Marine Life Photographer