Breaching Extinction

Exceptional whale watch boat captain and naturalist Paul Weatherford shares insight and stories accumulated after spending over a decade in the industry. Paul expresses opinions and concerns with continual changes throughout the ecosystem, industry,  and political landscape influencing southern residents. With hopes that his first child due later this month, will have the privilege of seeing southern residents he urges the removal of dams and encourages people to educate themselves about environmental issues and exercise their right to vote.

Deborah Giles, killer whale research director for Wild Orca and professor the University of Washington discusses her experiences studying the southern residents and further explains complexities of the salmon crisis in the Salish Sea. Through work with Conservation Canines, she has contributed to cutting edge research challenging traditional research practices while furthering our understanding of cetaceans.

I had the privilege of interviewing Leigh Calvez nature writer and author of the book The Breath of a Whale. We discussed her experience working with whale, how whales inspires her and what we learn from them.

This episode features Jordan Lerma, field biologist at Cascadia Research Collective. Jordan shares his story and discusses how his innovative work is used to study whales.

This episode features field biologist at Oceans Initiative, Sarah Colosimo. Sarah and Erica discuss the basics of souther resident killer whale population, behavior and threats as well as meaningful experiences they have had working around these animals.