More than 99 percent of Antarctic blue whales were killed by commercial whalers during the 20th century, but the first circumpolar genetic study of these critically endangered whales has found a surprisingly high level of diversity among the surviving population of some 2,200 individuals.
A new study suggests that the impact of predation on juvenile Steller sea lions in the Gulf of Alaska has been significantly underestimated, creating a “productivity pit” from which their population will have difficulty recovering without a reduction of predators.
Each fall, Scott Baker teaches a 3 credit course on 'The natural history of whales and whaling' (FW499/599) based at HMSC. The students finished the fall quarter with a debate, following a Karl Popper format.
After being hunted to local extinction more than a century ago and unable to remember their ancestral calving grounds, the southern right whales of mainland New Zealand are coming home. A new study published today has shown for the first time that whales from a small surviving population around remote, sub-Antarctic islands have found their way back ...
An unprecedented decade-long study of apex predators in the Pacific Ocean found a wider range of distribution among some species than previously thought, unknown relationships between other species, and the importance of biological “hotspots” to the survival of most of these sea creatures.
The Pew Environment Group announced today that four individuals, representing Chile, Mexico and the United States, received a 2011 Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation. Scott Baker is associate director of the Marine Mammal Institute and professor of Fisheries and Wildlife at OSU. His project is entitled: "A pattern of dolphins: the seascape genetics of island populations in protected an unprotected habitats of Oceania"
Associate Director Scott Baker and PhD student Becca Hamner were in Cloudy Bay, New Zealand, working with colleagues to collect genetic samples and individual identification photographs from Hector's dolphins.
Flex was first photo-identified off Sakhalin Island as a calf in 1997 and has subsequently been observed in multiple years off Sakhalin during the summer feeding season. To better understand his movements, photo-identification images of Flex were compared with a photo catalog of over 1000 eastern gray whales, which revealed a match.
Newport, Oregon – One of the world's top whale researchers is keeping track of a genetically distinct and rare whale that has wandered from the waters of Russia to the Oregon coast recently. Meanwhile, some pods of Killer Whales have been spotted marauding around these waters as well (above: Flex photographed near Russia).
Associate Director Scott Baker and Research Assistant Debbie Steel are in Apia, Samoa for a meeting of the South Pacific Whale Research Consortium, hosted by the South Pacific Regional Environment Progamme (SPREP).The Consortium includes 36 independent researchers active in 10 Pacific Island ...
On Saturday evening, May 22, the Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network received a report from the U.S. Coast Guard of a decomposed whale carcass that had been sighted by helicopter about a mile offshore from Waldport. The following morning the carcass was sighted on the beach just north of Beachside State Park.
Members of the stranding network responded and found a 40 foot male gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) in an advanced state of decomposition. Photographs and measurements were collected and limited sampling of...
On Thursday May 20, a team from the Marine Mammal Institute was able to successfully remove a plastic packing band that had been wrapped around the neck of an adult male California sea lion. This was our first attempt at removing debris from a sea lion on a beach.
We've also recently been successful with desentanglement efforts on a Steller sea lion at Sea Lion Caves and at our recently deployed disentanglement capture cage at the Bayfront in Newport.
Unfortunately, packing band entanglements are increasingly common with sea lions along the West Coast. These plastic strips are used in the packaging of many products, particularly frozen fish used for bait, and end up...
Scott Baker had no idea that when he agreed to participate in the making of The Cove, a documentary about a dolphin slaughter in Japan, that the movie would win an Academy Award.
When Ocean Power Technologies floats its first 200-ton wave energy-generating buoy off the Oregon Coast this year, it wants to be sure the device doesn’t disturb the coast’s most frequent multi-ton visitors: gray whales.
Markus Horning was this month's lecturer at Corvallis' Science Pub - a monthly gathering for the community to interact with OSU scientists on a variety of topics. This topic was "Consummate and Consumed Predators: Threats to Seals & Sea Lions in a Changing Ocean”.
In October 2009, a man and two women walked into a renowned Los Angeles restaurant called The Hump and ordered some sushi. This seemingly innocuous act was the start of a fascinating chain of events that would involve hidden cameras, genetic sequencing, a few arrests, and the first solid proof of an illegal international trade in whale meat.
An international team of Oregon State University scientists, documentary filmmakers and environmental advocates has uncovered an apparent illegal trade in whalemeat, linking whales killed in Japan’s controversial scientific whaling program to sushi restaurants in Seoul, South Korea, and Los Angeles, Calif.
On Wednesday March 31, 2010 we had our first opportunity to put our new Sea Lion Disentanglement Cage to good use.
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A crew from the Pinniped Ecology Applied Research Laboratory (PEARL) with OSU's Marine Mammal Institute is helping the North Coast Marine Mammal Center (http://www.northcoastmmc.org/index.php) track a young female Steller sea lion who was released from the rehabilitation facility in Crescent City, CA on Saturday, March 27. Markus Horning and interns Julia Hager, Stephen Meck and Jennifer Olson glued a satellite transmitter to the fur on the animals' head using 5-minute epoxy. The transmitter allows researchers to track the sea lion's location on a daily basis. The device is expected to fall off by the annual molt in August.
This is the first time a...
