The Whalenerd‘s Podcast

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!