The Whalenerd‘s Podcast

Episode 111 - Blue Whale Body Condition

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? 

Episode 110 - Crazy sightings and Gray whale report

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!

Episode 109: Special Guest Chase Dekker

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 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.

Episode 108 - Spring Trip Recap

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.

Episode 107 - Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins

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. 

Episode 106 - Baja Report

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. 

Episode 105 - Lessons Learned from Hawaiian Humpbacks

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

Episode 104 - Spring Events & Updates

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.

Episode 103 - Tracking Marine Mammals From Space

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.

Episode 102 - Does Any Species Really ”Win” In Climate Change? Climate News Part 3

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.