The Whalenerd‘s Podcast

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.