A humpback whale reported floating dead in the Strait of Juan de Fuca last week was examined by a team led by Cascadia Research Collective and aided by several organizations including the MMI.
OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
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A humpback whale reported floating dead in the Strait of Juan de Fuca last week was examined by a team led by Cascadia Research Collective and aided by several organizations including the MMI.
In this 15-min interview, Professor Scott Baker speaks to BYU Radio about mass strandings of whales. Last month, hundreds of pilot whales were found stranded on a sandbank in Tasmania.
ODFW is asking commercial Dungeness crab industry representatives to help design the next steps in reducing risk of whale and sea turtle entanglements in crab fishing gear. ODFW is hosting virtual public meetings Oct. 8 and Oct. 22 to further develop the draft conservation plan describing Oregon’s actions to both support this culturally iconic fishery and reduce entanglements.
The Cut reached out to Dr. Renee Albertson, a marine biologist at the Marine Mammal Institute, who was able to shed some light on why dolphins excel at achieving every skin-care goal we strive for without a 12-step routine, pricey facials, or even thinking about it at all, really.
MMI scientists have joined cetacean experts from around the world in signing an open statement that calls attention to "the real and imminent extinction risk to whales, dolphins, and porpoises."
At approximately 1:00 PM on Saturday, September 5, a live 39 foot sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis) was reported to be struggling in shallow water on the beach amongst large rocks at Face Rock in Bandon, Oregon. It became high and dry with the outgoing tide under a bright, warm sun. Supportive care was provided by personnel with the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement, the Oregon Department of Parks and Recreation (OPRD), Oregon State Police (OSP), and several local and regional volunteers (who...
Dr. Emma Carroll will be traveling to the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands to try to answer one of the big whale mysteries: where do New Zealand southern right whales go when they leave the sub-Antarctic, and which route do they take to get there? Dr. Carroll was a PhD student under Professor Scott Baker. Her research builds on the long-term population study of New Zealand right whales initiated by Prof. Baker at the University of Auckland.
The OSU MMI will host "Approaches to Modeling Bio-Logging Data," a webinar of the International Bio-Logging Society, on July 21, 2020. To register, visit http://ow.ly/ernd50Avptb. To find out more about the International Bio-Logging Society, including how to join, visit https://www.bio-logging.net/.
In an interview for the American Genetic Association blog, Professor Scott Baker describes how genetic studies can reveal migratory culture of of right whales.
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.