‘Exploding Whales’ partnership with Eugene baseball team benefits OSU’s Marine Mammal Institute
OSU Newsroom: 08/15/2023
Exploding whale logo

A minor-league baseball promotion rooted in a quirky bit of Oregon history will culminate this weekend in Eugene with a fundraising auction to benefit Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute.

Humpback Whales Are Moving into New Territory
Alaska Public Media: 08/10/2023

Associate Professor Kate Stafford was interviewed about a recent paper on humpback whale sightings in the Arctic. (Her interview begins at 18:59.) Sightings and acoustic detections of humpback whales have increased in the southern and central Chukchi Sea in recent years as the Arctic has been warming. Extreme sea ice retreat in fall opens further habitat to humpback whales and other temperate species. 

Gray whales feeding along the Pacific Northwest coast are smaller than their counterparts who travel farther to forage
OSU Newsroom: 08/09/2023

Gray whales that spend their summers feeding off the coast of Oregon are shorter than their counterparts who travel north to the Arctic for food, new research from Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute shows. The females average 3 feet shorter and males average 1.5 feet shorter, said the study’s lead author, K.C. Bierlich, a postdoctoral scholar in the institute’s Geospatial Ecology of Marine Megafauna Laboratory.

Poop and prey help researchers estimate that gray whales off Oregon Coast consume millions of microparticles per day
OSU Newsroom: 06/26/2023

A new paper authored by Leigh Torres and Susanne Brander estimates that gray whales feeding off the Oregon Coast consume up to 21 million microparticles per day. Microparticle pollution is a threat to the health of gray whales, in addition to obstacles related to increased boat traffic and loss of prey.

Mystery orcas with bulbous heads wash up dead in unexplained mass stranding
Live Science: 06/20/2023

Bob Pitman was interviewed about a mass stranding of type D killer whales in Chile — only the second stranding of this killer whale ecotype (possibly species) and the first in 67 years. 

Orca whales captured on camera randomly attacking boats
CBS8: 06/20/2023

An increase in killer whales attacking boats off Europe have some people asking, are they being playful or seeking revenge? “My personal opinion is that people do revenge, animals don’t do revenge,” said Robert Pitman, a marine ecologist.

Researchers help students connect classwork to marine science
Newport News-Times: 06/16/2023

The 84-foot research vessel, Pacific Storm, embarks from its home port in Newport’s Yaquina Bay with an educational mission to introduce Sheridan High School students to oceanography by observing and helping Oregon State University scientists as part of Oregon Sea Grant’s STEM at Sea program. The vessel is owned and operated by OSU’s Marine Mammal Institute.

Don’t bother stranded seals and sea lions on beaches
KLCC: 05/24/2023

It's the heart of harbor seal pupping season. Jim Rice, the stranding program manager for Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, said seal pups may come ashore and seem stranded, but they’re just waiting for their mom to retrieve them.

How worsening marine heatwaves are disturbing NZ’s largest animal
NZ Herald: 05/24/2023

Now, the marine heatwaves which have engulfed New Zealand over recent years have been shown to disrupt local feeding and breeding of our own population of the planet’s largest animal: the blue whale.

It’s beach season for harbor seals, sea lions and humans — and the experts would like to offer a few words of advice
YachatsNews: 05/18/2023

Few beachgoers can resist the desire for a close-up look at these fascinating mammals, but Rice warns that it’s best to give them a wide berth.

3 Gray Whales Strand on Oregon Coast: Calf from Orca Attack; Mother and Calf Swim Away
Oregon Coast Beach Connection: 05/12/2023

[Jim] Rice did a necropsy on the beach and was in the middle of that when word came of the two whales farther up the coast.

Orcas off Oregon coast captured in rare, dramatic video footage
The Oregonian: 05/11/2023

On Monday, May 8, whale watchers along the Oregon coast spotted a rare sight: a pod of orcas appearing to hunt prey together in an organized group. According to Craig Hayslip, a faculty research assistant with the Marine Mammal Institute at OSU who witnessed the event, the mother defended the calf throughout the time it was being attacked and long after it was dead.

Mexico search set to find world's most endangered porpoises
The Washington Post: 05/08/2023

MMI Director Lisa T. Ballance and Affiliate Faculty Bob Pitman are part of an international team of scientists attempting to locate the few remaining endangered vaquita porpoises in Mexico's Gulf of California.

Long Isolated Killer Whales Maintain Small Population Spanning Oceans
NOAA Fisheries: 03/30/2023
Type D killer whale

Lisa T. Ballance and Robert Pitman led an international team in 2019 that collected samples from living "type D" killer whales for the first time. The genetic laboratories of NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center are now helping decipher the genetic patterns from the samples. Results just published in the Journal of Heredity indicate that the “type D” killer whales have among the lowest genomic diversity and highest level of inbreeding of any mammalian species.

Blue whale bones nearing final stages of cleaning; OSU plans to assemble them for display
OPB/KLCC: 03/27/2023

The blue whale’s 70-foot-long carcass washed up in Gold Beach, Oregon in 2015. Often whales sink to the ocean floor and are picked apart by predators and scavengers, making the odds of a nearly complete carcass being recovered exceptionally rare. “It’s an exciting opportunity for us and we’re thrilled to make it happen,” [Lisa] Ballance said.

With fewer salmon to eat, Southern Resident killer whales spend less time in the San Juan Islands
OSU Newsroom: 03/27/2023

As a key food supply declines, the endangered population of Southern Resident killer whales, known to frequent the Salish Sea off the coasts of Washington and British Columbia, is spending far less time in that region, a new study shows. MMI Assistant Professor Josh Stewart is the study's lead author.

Rare blue whale skeleton heads to Canada for final cleaning and preservation so it can go on display in Newport
OSU Newsroom: 03/23/2023

The skeleton of a rare 70-foot blue whale that washed up on the Oregon coast several years ago will journey to Alberta, Canada, later this week so a team of preservation and restoration specialists can prepare it for public display at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. 

New migration patterns detected in bowhead whales
Alaska's News Source: 03/22/2023

MMI Research Associate Angela Szesciorka and Associate Professor Kate Stafford talk to Alaska News Source about their findings related to changes in bowhead whale migration patterns. [VIDEO]

Oregon State researchers begin to unravel whale entanglement risk factors off Oregon Coast
OSU Newsroom: 03/17/2023

Postdoctoral Scholar Solène Derville is the lead author on a new paper that describes the times of year and locations where whales are at greatest danger of entanglement in fishing gear on the Oregon Coast.

Marine Mammal Reproduction Rests On A Precarious Tipping Point Of Ocean Resources
Daily Guardian: 03/08/2023

“Conceptually it makes sense that an individual would have to gain enough energy to survive and reproduce, but we were able to demonstrate how entwined these are and suggest when survival may be prioritized over reproduction,” said co-first author Keith Hernandez, who worked on the study as a postdoctoral scholar at UCSC and is now at Oregon State University.

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