Part 2 of the series on whale song.

Do we know why the winged whale sings? The long and short of it is, we don't. But Katlyn broke down some of the leading theories from over the years of what scientists have studied. This is a broad summary of some of the leading theories as to why humpback whales in particular might sing. 

Introducing minisodes!

During this time we are not able to go out on the water - so we are launching mini episodes. These minisodes are more condensed information about one particular topic. If you have suggestions for topics - send them to us via instagram or facebook. 

This first minisode is part of a three part series on whale song. This first part is: How whale song saved a species. Katlyn researched the historic timeline of whale song and when it was first made available to the public, and how the public reacted to it afterward. 

All the resources from this minisode will be posted on the facebook page.

Stay safe out there!

We are all locked down and laid off! But we had quite a few sightings to report from all our trips before the shut downs. Slater did manage to almost get a full week in on his Baja trip before having to cancel it all.

We also covered a few whale news items. The partial birth of a humpback whale in Maui from February - the mom and baby we re-sighted! Six weeks later and both appear healthy! We also talked about killer whales chasing some sei whales in to shallow water in Chile, a dwarf sperm whale startled by a seal or sea lion and right whales and a harp seal being sighted from shore in Cape Cod.

Stay safe out there!

We had another special guest this week! Robbie Mueller has been one of our longtime listeners and was our first supporter on patreon. We are so honored by his support of our work.

Robbie was inspired by a whale watch trip he went on in Alaska and by listening to our podcast to become more involved in the field of marine mammal science. He is currently working on his Master's degree at Texas A&M Corpus Cristi and did an internship with AIMM Portugal last summer working with dolphin studies! He had a great experience out there and we got to chat with him about his internship. It went so well that he is headed back there this summer to work for a longer part of the field season as a research assistant. 

AIMM Portugal is still looking for interns this season. If you are interested in applying, check out the info at this link: https://www.aimmportugal.org/dolphin-research-internship

This week we were able to chat with Dr. Robin Baird from Cascadia Research Collective! 

Robin works primarily on odontocete species around the Hawaiian Islands. We asked him questions about his work, funding, past studies and how he got involved in marine biology in the beginning. 

Check out his projects at this web address: http://www.cascadiaresearch.org/projects/hawaii

Slater and Katlyn have some announcements to make!

Slater just launched his new apparel line: Open Seas Co. https://openseasco.com/

Katlyn just accepted a job for the summer at Cape Ann Whale Watch! She will be in Gloucester from mid-May to October. There are internship positions open if you want to join her out there volunteering this summer!

We also covered our recent sightings and some whale news on the following topics: ACS Monterey Bay meeting with John Ryan, Killer Whale sightings in Lebanon and Israel, stranded fin whale in Cornwall update, tail sailing behavior in humpbacks, and an internship in Alaska monitoring belugas.

We have activated our facebook page and will be using that to share our episode, but also our resources for our episode content so you can follow along! https://www.facebook.com/whalenerds/

It was Slater's turn to come back to Maui this time! We had a great week of whale watching, snorkeling and island adventures. 

We also went through some whale news and a quick recap of the Maui Whale Day events and Whale Tales Conference.

It's Eric's turn to visit Maui! He has had some amazing whale watch trips in addition to land sightings of turtles and chameleons! We also had quite a bit of recent whale news including an abandoned humpback calf in O'ahu and the recording of underwater footage of a partial humpback birthing event here in Maui!

Wow! It has been a year since we started this podcast. Thank you SO MUCH!

This episode we talked about our latest sightings, some recent whale and ocean news, and whale snot! 

This episode is also available via video format for our followers on patreon. If you want to see our antics while recording then join us on there!

patreon.com/whalenerds

We had loads of whale news for this episode. Everything from dolphin by catch protests, solar flares in correlation with live strandings of whales to tracking whales from space via satellite. We also caught up on our recent sighings from California and Maui. 

We also got a heart warming message on instagram from one of our listeners about how we have inspired her to pursue her cetacean aspirations. Thank you so much for the feedback! If you have been inspired to pursue your whale dreams after listening to our podcast, we want to hear about it!