Marine Mammal Science

This week’s episode is the last of 3 episodes with Dr. Thomas Jefferson. In this episode, Ashley and Tom talk about how his research on the Finless Porpoises came about and the ground-breaking research on the habitats and ranges of the cetacean species in Hong Kong.

This week’s episode is is the 2nd of 3 episodes with Dr Thomas Jefferson. In this episode  Ashley and Tom talk about Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins and the importance of some ground-breaking research on this species.

Dr. Ashley Scarlett welcomes Dr. Thomas A. Jefferson to the podcast to talk about marine mammals, especially dolphins and porpoises. In this episode, Tom talks about the state of the critically endangered porpoise, the Vaquita, that is endemic to the Sea of Cortez. 

The Vaquita get caught in gillnets that are targeting Totoaba fish, whose swim bladders are in high demand in China. Tom discusses how the legal Totoaba fishery led to the reduction in fish and porpoise populations by the gillnet. 

There are an estimated 15 individuals left in the world.  

Dr. Thomas A. Jefferson has been studying marine mammals since 1983, when he was an undergraduate at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His Master’s degree is from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, and his Ph.D. is from Texas A&M University.  Tom is Director of Clymene (KLIM IN EE) Enterprises and an Independent Researcher at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries, where his main interests are the development of marine mammal identification aids, and investigating the systematics and population ecology of the more poorly-known species of dolphins and porpoises. Most of his work has been related to conservation and management of marine mammals threatened by human activities. He has published over 170 books and papers on marine mammals.

Dr. Holly Fearnbach, speaks to Dr. Ashley Scarlett about “SR3”, which stands for SeaLife Response, Rehabilitation, and Research. This program studies the health of endangered southern resident killer whales and the decline in their prey. But, she also gives us some hope for this population and their health status and tells listeners how they can stay connected to the conservation efforts of this population.

Dr. Michelle Lander talks about some of the highlights of her research using tags on pinnipeds, and about the difficulties of tracking animals that spend a large portion of their time underwater, in remote locations, in the ocean depths.

Dr. Ashley Scarlett talks to Dr. Luis Bedrinana-Romano about his team's new paper on priority areas for blue whale conservation and the overlap with vessel traffic. They also talk about how their paper went viral on social media thanks to an informative animation they used.

Dr. Ashley Scarlett talks to NOAA ecologist Carey Kuhn about her fascinating work on northern fur seal foraging ecology that integrates video cameras mounted on fur seals and prey mapping with unmanned surface vehicles (Saildrones). This technology has enabled Carey to fill in some of the long-missing information gaps there have been, about how seals feed out at sea.

Dr. Ashley Scarlett talks to Lauren Hartny-Mills, about two much-loved, famous fins that visit the west coast of Scotland, Knobble the minke whale and John Coe the killer whale, and the key role citizen science has played in understanding the movements of these two celebrity whales.

This week’s guest is Alison Lomax, the Director of the Hebridean Whale & Dolphin Trust in Scotland. She talks about the various programs that they run, and how they built a case for a new Marine Protected Area in West Scotland.