Oregon State University scientists have used drone-mounted cameras to capture the more curious antics of gray whales, which includes swimming upside down or snapping their jaws.
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Oregon State University scientists have used drone-mounted cameras to capture the more curious antics of gray whales, which includes swimming upside down or snapping their jaws.
Scientists at Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute have pioneered new ways of documenting these incredible whale defecation events with aerial drones. Leigh Torres, an OSU MMI marine ecologist, is a specialist in this field who has helped capture illuminating views of gray whales for several years.
Dr. Bruce Mate and Dr. Leigh Torres will be among the speakers at the Whale Trail Interpretive Sign Dedication and Community Celebration at Don Davis Park in Newport, Saturday, August 11. The Whale Trail network of viewing sites helps to inspire appreciation and stewardship of whales and the marine environment.
"Whales are very acoustic animals, so we assume that a lot of the cues they get about where food is located are based on sound," said Leigh Torres, a marine ecologist at Oregon State University in Newport and collaborator on the research project.
The whales off the West Coast depend on sound to communicate, navigate and find food. So, what happens to their health when we fill their habitat with noisy ship traffic? Oregon State University researcher Dr. Leigh Torres is leading an ambitious new research project to find out, using drones and a variety of other tools to do health check-ups on the whales. [Video]
The Department of Conservation will carefully review a study which has described a constant underwater racket created by seismic airguns. In a new blog post, US scientists Dr Leigh Torres, of Oregon State University, and Dr Holger Klinck, of Cornell University, have aired their concerns over the oil and gas industry's use of the instruments, which they say are having a harmful impact on marine life.
Blue whales didn’t become the largest animals ever to live on Earth by being dainty eaters and new video captured by scientists at Oregon State University shows just how they pick and choose their meals.
The Marine Mammal Institute will be well represented at this year's Sharing the Coast Conference in Waldport, OR. Leigh Torres will be providing the keynote address at 6:30 pm, Friday, March 3, 2017. Dr. Torres will discuss the latest in research into the lives of gray whales and other marine megafauna inhabiting our coastal waters and ways in which citizens can help scientists monitor whale populations. Her presentation is free and open to the public.
On Saturday, March 4, Jim Rice, coordinator of the Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network, will give an overview of the state’s marine mammal populations and explain how citizens can engage in tracking these populations through reporting stranded animals, alive or dead. The...
Leigh Torres, an assistant professor at the OSU Marine Mammal Institute, will discuss some of her recent work with gray whales along the Oregon Coast during the 10 a.m. Saturday [12/3/16] meeting of the Oregon Chapter of the American Cetacean Society in Newport, Oregon. The meeting will be at the Newport Public Library. Admission is free.
A lot of people think what Leigh Torres has done this summer and fall would qualify her for a spot on one of those “World’s Worst Jobs” lists. After all, the Oregon State University marine ecologist follows gray whales from a small inflatable boat in the rugged Pacific Ocean and waits for them to, well, poop. Then she and her colleagues have about 20-30 seconds to swoop in behind the animal with a fine mesh net and scoop up some of the prized material before it drifts to the ocean floor.
The January-February 2016 Field Report on blue whale ecology in the South Taranaki Bight region of New Zealand is now available.
National Geographic Explorer and marine ecologist Leigh Torres made the likely discovery of nursing while on a research cruise in the South Taranaki Bight off the western coast of New Zealand. On February 5, the Oregon State University professor got video that she thinks shows a mother blue whale and her calf nursing beneath the waves.
Research on the world's largest animal has begun off the coast of Taranaki. Blue whales are being studied by a team from Oregon State University (OSU) in collaboration with the Department of Conservation to try to find out if the species use the South Taranaki Bight as a feeding ground. The survey comes after OSU marine mammal expert Leigh Torres led a team of researchers who observed dozens of blue whales feeding about 100km off the coast south of New Plymouth in 2014. "We want to know when and where the blue whales occur in the South Taranaki Bight, as well as how many blue whales use this area as a foraging ground," Torres said.
An international research team, working in collaboration with the Department of Conservation (DOC), has begun work on an extended survey to learn more about blue whales feeding in the South Taranaki Bight off the Taranaki coast. The research covers an area of the Tasman Sea between Cape Egmont and Farewell Spit and is led by Oregon State University marine mammal expert Dr. Leigh Torres. The research, led by Oregon State University, will be conducted over a three year period with support from the Aotearoa Foundation, a private foundation, in collaboration with DOC.
Oregon’s resident gray whales are attracting a new wave of scientific interest as the OSU Marine Mammal Institute grows, with last year’s arrival of marine megafauna researcher Leigh Torres and with the endeavors of van Tulder, who is spending every day this summer with her eyes on the whales.