Marine Mammal Institute researchers who recently discovered a population of blue whales in New Zealand are learning more about the links between the whales, their prey, and ocean conditions that are changing as the planet warms.
With support from The American Genetic Association, a workshop on marine mammal eDNA was held at the World Marine Mammal Conference in Barcelona, Spain, in December 2019. Professor Scott Baker provided examples of successful application of eDNA approaches to detect killer whales.
Scott Baker is a coauthor on a new publication that shares results from February's British Antarctic Survey expedition to South Georgia. Using a new genetic tool, the team discovered that most of the whales visiting South Georgia were calved around South America.
Jim Rice, who coordinates the statewide Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network headquartered at OSU's Marine Mammal Institute at the Hatfield Marine Science Center, urges the public to refrain from touching or approaching seal pups, which in most cases are not orphaned or abandoned. Seal pups are frequently left on the beach by their mothers, who are out looking for food.
Springtime is pup season. At this time of year, harbor seal pups are frequently found alone on area beaches. They are usually not stranded, but simply resting (as all baby mammals must do) and waiting for their mothers to come back ashore to nurse them. Adult female seals are shy and unlikely to rejoin a pup if there is activity nearby. They may only return to suckle their pup at night when people (and dogs) are not around. It is very important not to interfere with this process, and especially not to move a pup from where it is receiving care from its mother.
Within three or four weeks of birth, harbor seal pups are weaned from maternal care and are left to fend for...
In an interview last night with KGW8, Dr. Leigh Torres discussed her research on the health of gray whales off the Oregon coast. Dr. Torres and her team found that, overall, the whales’ body condition deteriorated after three years of poor upwelling conditions.
Three years of “health check-ups” on Oregon’s summer resident gray whales shows a compelling relationship between whales’ overall body condition and changing ocean conditions that likely limited availability of prey for the mammals, a new study from Oregon State University indicates.
A new paper by Leigh Torres and colleagues, published in PeerJ, describes how examining the fine-scale movements of blue whales provides insights into their feeding decisions.
According to Jim Rice, stranding coordinator for the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, the boys are getting geared up to vie for a mate when they return to California during late May and June.
The north Oregon coast’s Sand Lake Recreation Area near Pacific City received a rather large and unsettling visitor on Friday. A camp host at the area discovered the corpse of a 39-foot gray whale. Jim Rice of OMMSN responded.
Last fall, Dr. Lisa Ballance took the helm as the new director of the Marine Mammal Institute (MMI) at Oregon State University. We visited with Ballance at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport to talk about her experience, research, and vision of MMI’s future.
Bruce Mate proposes that the recent increase in observable gray whale deaths may be due to the species' recovery and an adjustment to the population reaching its natural carrying capacity.
In a new research paper by lead author Robert Pitman, scientists propose that whales that forage in polar waters migrate to low latitudes to maintain healthy skin.
MMI Associate Director Scott Baker was a member of the scientific team documenting the return of great whales to the former whaling center of South Georgia Island.
The USFWS has awarded a grant to the nonprofit group Elakha Alliance to launch a feasibility study for possible reintroduction of sea otters to the Oregon coast. A newly published study by Dominique Kone in the Marine Mammal Institute found there is suitable habitat to support around 4,500 resident sea otters. Kone cautioned that wildlife managers would have to consider a range of overlapping human uses.
In January 2019, Dr. Lisa T. Ballance and Dr. Robert Pitman were part of an international team of scientists who launched an expedition from the southern tip of Chile, searching for what could be a new species of killer whale. Watch the video to see their first glimpse of the whales.
Nearly 10,000 Oregonians have purchased gray whale license plates since they went on sale a year ago, providing critical support for Oregon State University researchers studying gray whales that frequent Oregon’s waters.
Advances in DNA technology and understanding of molecular biology may help fill an important knowledge gap about the critically endangered and declining Cook Inlet beluga population. Dr. Ellie Bors and a team of researchers began working to find out how to use epigenetics to date Cook Inlet belugas in 2018, while she was a post-doctoral scholar at the OSU Marine Mammal Institute in Dr. Scott Baker's Cetacean Conservation and Genomics Laboratory.
During January 2020, the British Antarctic Survey’s wild water whales team has been conducting surveys for southern right whales all around the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia. MMI's Dr. Scott Baker is on the team of ten international experts from five countries (the UK, USA, Canada, Brazil, and New Zealand), which includes marine mammal observers, photo-ID specialists, geneticists, acousticians, a drone pilot, and an expert in satellite tagging. The wild water whales expedition is running for 33 days on New Zealand research vessel the R/V Braveheart.
Dr. Daniel Palacios was recently interviewed by Dr. Chris Parsons for the Marine Mammal Science Podcast. Listen to the episode here, "Tracking Whales via Satellite Tags."
