The Whalenerd‘s Podcast

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 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