"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]
For the past two-plus years, the carcass of a 78-foot blue whale that washed ashore near Gold Beach, Oregon, in November 2015 has been submerged in Yaquina Bay allowing nature to run its course by having scavengers clean the bones. The cleansing process is nearly complete, according to researchers with the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, who hope to bring the skeleton to the surface and treat it with chemicals to get oil out of the bones. Eventually, they hope to display it for the public as an educational exhibit at the new Marine Studies Building that OSU will open in late 2019 on the Hatfield Marine Science Center campus in Newport.
A new blog by veterinarian Dr. Lauren Jacobsen describes the adventure of searching for the source of elusive beaked whale vocalizations. Extracting eDNA from seawater offers an opportunity to collect biologic information from the animal generating these calls. The samples are being analyzed by Dr. Scott Baker and his team at the Cetacean Conservation and Genomics Lab at Oregon State University.
The College of Agricultural Sciences at Oregon State University is seeking a Director of the OSU Marine Mammal Institute. For the complete position description and application instructions, visit https://jobs.oregonstate.edu/postings/52816. Apply by January 15, 2018, for full consideration. Position closes February 15, 2018.
The Cetacean Conservation and Genomics Laboratory, led by Dr. Scott Baker, is seeking a postdoctoral scholar to specialize in epigenetic aging of beluga whales by next-generation sequencing. Apply by December 1, 2017, for full consideration.
Oregonians may now purchase a voucher for a new license plate featuring a gray whale and her calf, with proceeds going to support the Oregon State University Marine Mammal Institute. The voucher can be purchased for $40 through the institute at whaleplate.com. Once 3,000 vouchers have been sold, the Oregon DMV will begin manufacturing the plates. The OSU Marine Mammal Institute will receive $35 for each pair of license plates sold, which will support whale research, graduate student education and public outreach.
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.
A bacteria outbreak is making sea lions sick along the Oregon Coast, so state officials are warning people and their dogs to stay away from the animals. The outbreak began in September and likely will last into December, said Jim Rice, coordinator with the Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network. Anyone who comes across a sick sea lion or other ill marine mammal is asked to stay at least 50 feet away and call Oregon State Police dispatchers at 800-452-7888.
As in past years, we are currently seeing a significant increase in the frequency of California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) appearing on Oregon beaches in varying states of health and disease. Many have been affected by Leptospirosis, a contagious bacterial infection of the kidneys. This disease causes animals to appear very lethargic and unable or unwilling to move their hind limbs, and is often accompanied by weight loss and pneumonia. While it is possible for infected animals to recover from this disease if given plenty of opportunity to rest, there is no option to rescue and rehabilitate these animals in...
Sperm whales are social animals that travel in groups, but when it comes to eating, they prefer a table for one. That's one of the takeaways from a study conducted by researchers at Oregon State University's Marine Mammal Institute. The research was published in late August in the journal Ecology and Evolution.
Humpback whales, it seems, are coping with dwindling marine resources by moving inland. A sharp decline in the Pacific's krill (small shrimp) have them shopping for alternatives. "They're hungry," said Bruce Mate, director of the Oregon State University Marine Mammal Institute in Newport and one of the world's leading whale scientists. "They wouldn't be there if there wasn't something to eat."
“You’ve just put an instrument on the biggest animal that’s ever lived, and you got the most incredible view while doing it,” said Ari Friedlaender, a marine ecologist at Oregon State University who says he has become so proficient at tagging whales that he doesn’t even notice the boat rocking. “Afterwards there’s kind of an adrenaline rush.”
“Our increased understanding of how whale populations are structured can help governments and inter-governmental organizations like the International Whaling Commission improve management decisions in the future,” said Dr. C. Scott Baker of Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute and a member of the South Pacific Whale Research Consortium that contributed to the study.
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.
Dr. Ari Friedlaender has been in Antarctica attaching suction cup tags and cameras to humpback and minke whales to study their feeding behavior. “We have some wonderful data on different feeding strategies..."
Associate Director Scott Baker was in New Zealand in February to continue a multi-year population survey of the critically endangered Māui dolphin.
Scott Baker, Associate Director of the MMI, was one of the invited members of an expert panel to designate Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs) in the South Pacific.
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...
A new license plate featuring a gray whale and her calf likely will be available to Oregon drivers by summer 2017. This project is sponsored by the Oregon State University Marine Mammal Institute and enthusiasm for it is running high, said Bruce Mate, director of the institute. “Everybody I’ve shown the plate design to has loved it,” said Mate, whose institute will receive $35 from the Oregon Department of Transportation every time a vehicle owner spends $40 to buy the plate. The money will go toward whale research, graduate student education and public outreach. The institute needs to turn in an “expression of interest” from at least 3,000 vehicle owners stating they plan to buy the plate.
