Marine Mammal Institute

Charles Nye, a graduate fellow with OSU’s Marine Mammal Institute, said he was able to examine some organic material from the crabbing gear line. Nye has determined that the dead orca was not [endangered Southern Resident killer whale] K44. 

The federal government has commissioned Oregon State University to look into the possible impacts of offshore wind farms on marine wildlife. “The (continental) shelf and the slope have high abundance and high density of marine mammals and seabirds,” reported OSU Marine Mammal Institute director Lisa Ballance after the first two of seven planned research cruises were in the books. Ballance said her team needs to do a lot more analysis before she would consider making any statements about whether anchoring massive floating wind turbines amid this maritime abundance would create problems.

“Because extensive commercial shipping in the Arctic is a relatively new phenomenon, Arctic species may have a lower tolerance of, and react more strongly to, such noise,” said [Kate] Stafford, [Associate Professor at MMI]. 

“It seems like these big die-offs are driven more by conditions in the Arctic, which these days is probably a result of climate change,” Assistant Professor Josh Stewart said. Doctoral student Lisa Hildebrand shared that the body conditions of the Pacific Coast Feeding Group gray whales have been improving over the years, while the body conditions of whales going all the way to the Arctic have been getting worse. 

More than 150 sea lions have been found sick or dead along Oregon’s coast due to a bacterial outbreak of Leptospirosis this summer. Jim Rice is the stranding program manager for Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute. He joins Think Out Loud to share what the outbreak has looked like so far and how it compares to previous years.

Jim Rice, a stranding program manager, replied and said it simply appears to be the decomposed remains of a dead whale. “What looks like hair is the decomposing remains of other body tissues: muscle, nerves, tendons etc. I would estimate that this one has been dead for several months,” he said.

The biologically rich waters along the West Coast are prime feeding grounds for baleen whales, especially during summer. These waters also support busy international shipping routes to and from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in southern California, and Oakland, Richmond, Benicia, Redwood City, and San Francisco off central California. The Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory at UC Santa Barbara, along with a consortium of research and conservation institutions including MMI, have recently launched Whale Safe for the San Francisco Bay region. Whale Safe is a technology-based mapping and analysis tool designed to prevent fatal ship collisions with whales. Whale Safe was originally designed for...

Dawn Barlow and colleagues listened to the blue whale undersea chorus in the South Taranaki Bight, New Zealand. To their surprise, they found that the whales appeared to be unperturbed by natural seismic activity. 

A new study from a team including MMI Assistant Professor Mauricio Cantor found that sperm whales in the Pacific Ocean make distinct vocalizations that help them identify whales in different clans.