PacMam Podcast

Join Pacific Mammal Research (PacMam) scientists to learn about different marine mammals!  We discuss a little about the biology, behavior and fun facts about each species.  Have fun and learn about marine mammals with PacMam!  

This week: Northern fur seals  

Presenters: Cindy Elliser, Katrina MacIver, Trevor Derie

Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKW) are endangered.  Understanding what prey they consume, and when and where they eat different prey species is vital to their conservation, as food is crucial to their survival.  We know that they mainly eat Chinook salmon (many populations are also endangered) during the summer months while they are in the Salish Sea, but much less is known about their diet during other seasons, and when they are out on the outer coast of Washington.  Join us as we discuss how their diet changes seasonally, how Chinook is still a large part of their diet year round, and how humans affect the conservation of salmon and killer whales. There are a lot of complex interactions that make this story so interesting, and difficult to solve, and fun to discuss! 

Listener support - help us by donating monthly: https://anchor.fm/pacific-mammal-research/support

Paper freely available: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0247031

Help us continue to provide content like this by donating: https://pacmam.org/wp/donate/

We also have merchandise: https://pacmam.org/wp/shop/

Join Pacific Mammal Research (PacMam) scientists to learn about different marine mammals!  We discuss a little about the biology, behavior and fun facts about each species.  Have fun and learn about marine mammals with PacMam!  

This week: Minke whale

Presenters: Cindy Elliser, Katrina MacIver, Trevor Derie

Here the 'boing' vocalization from a minke whale here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rJyjCixE58

Join us this week as we learn about how antibiotic resistant bacteria are making their way into the Salish Sea. Wild harbor porpoises and harbor seals have been found with antibiotic resistant bacteria in their bodies, but they were never exposed to antibiotics.  Learn about how they may be getting exposed and how this affects not only marine mammals, but other marine animals and humans as well.  Antibiotic resistance is a large public health issue, and this work sheds light onto how our actions are affecting the marine environment, but also how that can come back to affect human health.  It is a stark reminder that our actions have far reaching consequences, one we need to understand better (through studies like these), so we can make things better.

Paper freely available: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-1924/2/1/6

Help us continue to provide content like this by donating: https://pacmam.org/wp/donate/

We also have merchandise: https://pacmam.org/wp/shop/

Join Pacific Mammal Research (PacMam) scientists to learn about different marine mammals!  We discuss a little about the biology, behavior and fun facts about each species.  Have fun and learn about marine mammals with PacMam!  

This week: Sei whale

Presenters: Cindy Elliser, Katrina MacIver, Trevor Derie

This week we are excited to interview Joy Kacoroski, a Parks Interpretive Specialist (aka education is her main focus) at Deception Pass State Park.  Have you ever thought about becoming a park ranger, or wonder what it is like to help take care of these wonderful parks and educate others? This is the episode for you! We talk to Joy about her job, how she got there, and how she educates people about marine mammals, nature, and the park.

Have questions for Joy about being a ranger? Contact her at: [email protected]

Learn about WA state parks here: https://www.parks.wa.gov/

Season 2 is here!  

Join Pacific Mammal Research (PacMam) scientists to learn about different marine mammals!  We discuss a little about the biology, behavior and fun facts about each species.  Have fun and learn about marine mammals with PacMam!  

This week: Dalls porpoise  

Presenters: Cindy Elliser, Katrina MacIver, Trevor Derie

Join Pacific Mammal Research (PacMam) scientists to learn about 3 different marine mammals or topics each episode!  We discuss a little about the biology, behavior and fun facts about each species or topic.  Have fun and learn about marine mammals with PacMam!

This week: Since it is almost the end of 2020 (thank goodness!), we are asking ourselves 3 questions: what was our favorite highlight from 2020, the favorite thing we learned in 2020, and what we look forward to in 2021.  A nice wrap up of an otherwise crazy year.  We hope you have enjoyed the podcast as much as we have enjoyed making it - we are looking forward to more in 2021!

Presenters: Cindy Elliser, Katrina MacIver, Trevor Derie  

Music by Josh Burns

Link to our drone footage we mention: https://youtu.be/J48yZI45ohg

Salmon population are down.  Some are dying in what is called urban spawner mortatily syndrome - where they die (within hours) before they have a chance to spawn.  Sometimes up to 90% of the run.  But what is interesting is that this happens to Coho, but not Chum salmon that may spawn in the same stream.  Why? And what is causing this syndrome?  We discuss a paper that documents the differences between these two species and why coho may be more susceptible to this particular unknown toxin (they know it is from motorized vehicles and gets to streams via storm water run-off).  That leads us to discuss a very recent article that came out that found that smoking gun- the particular toxin that is killing the coho, and it has to do with tires.  Join us as we discuss the work that went into figuring all this out, what the impacts of this research are, how it is connected to the consumer, and what we can do to protect these salmon, and all that depend on them (including people!).

Paper available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026974911734527X?via%3Dihub

Help us continue to provide content like this by donating: https://pacmam.org/wp/donate/

Join Pacific Mammal Research (PacMam) scientists to learn about 3 different marine mammals or topics each episode!  We discuss a little about the biology, behavior and fun facts about each species or topic.  Have fun and learn about marine mammals with PacMam!  

This week: Marine mammal intelligence- dolphins, seals, sea lions and tool use!  

Presenters: Cindy Elliser, Katrina MacIver, Trevor Derie  Music by Josh Burns