Confirmed Sea Otter Sighting
Oregon Parks and Recreation Whale Watch Center: 02/25/2009
Sea Otter laying on back in water

A sea otter (Enhydra lutris) has been sighted and photographed recently in Depoe Bay. This is the first confirmed sighting (with photographs) of a sea otter on the Central coast in many years. Although we frequently receive reports of sightings of otters on the coast, most of these are in fact river otters  (Lontra canadensis), a much more common species that lives primarily in fresh water habitats but frequently ventures into the marine environment as well.

It appears that this animal is a wanderer from either California or Washington waters. Whether or not it remains in...

"The Cove" wins Sundance
CCGL: 02/20/2009

Scott Baker is featured in an award-winning documentary. 'The Cove', a documentary about the slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan.  This moving piece just won the audience award for best US documentary at the Sundance film festival. This bodes well for a larger distribution in the future, hopefully leading to a greater appreciation of the problems of mercury contamination and the Taiji drive kill. Read the review here.

Terri Irwin/MMI team up to study whales
MMI: 06/30/2008

Terri Irwin signs an agreement with the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University to fund humpback whale research projects. Read more

See OSU News and Communication Media Release here

See Corvallis Gazette-Times article here

MMI researchers study gray whale migration along the Oregon Coast.

Researchers will conduct shore-based observations to track the migration of gray whales as they pass Yaquina Head on the central Oregon coast.

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For more information on wave energy development in the Pacific Northwest, click here.

Bruce Mate tracks rare whale migrating up West Coast

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The Loneliest Whale in the World?

The MMI's Bruce Mate will be leading a scientific team on a search for the "52-Hz whale" next fall. The expedition is planned as part of a documentary about the elusive whale and will involve tagging whales in the eastern North Pacific. Because it is possible to hear this distinctive whale over large distances, Dr. Mate's team will rely on the leadership of NOAA's Bob Dziak and the Pacific Marine Environmental Lab's access to fixed hydrophones in the North Pacific to guide the search, find the whale, and tag some of its cohorts.

MMI attends Society for Marine Mammalogy meeting in Capetown, South Africa.

Four MMI scientists flew to Capetown, South Africa, in November 2007 to present their research findings at the 17th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals.

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Post-doctoral position in 'genomics diversity of endangered whales' available - Apply by June 15, 2010!

Position in the Cetacean Conservation Genetics Laboratory for a post-doc in 'genomic divrsity of endangered whales' - click here for description and details.

 

Scientists hope OSU whale-tracking data can reduce accidental deaths

A multi-agency team of scientists has launched a project to reduce the number of whales killed from ship strikes and entanglement in fishing nets by identifying high-risk areas along the West Coast of the United States. The WhaleWatch project will use data from the tagging and satellite monitoring of more than 300 whales, conducted by researchers at Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute.

Expedition Austral Islands: A Comprehensive Study of Whales and Dolphins in French Polynesia

MMI PhD student Renee Albertson is in the Austral Islands collecting data on whales and dolphins as part of the South Pacific Whale Research Consortium. The results of this project will contribute to long-term, ongoing genetic and demographic studies of residency patterns and social organization among whales and dolphins throughout French Polynesia. Follow Renee’s adventure through her bilingual blog.

Whale Watch Training November 22-23, 2008 at HMSC

Internationally recognized whale expert Bruce Mate will lead off training for "Whale Watching Spoken Here" volunteers Nov. 22-23 at the Mark O. Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport.

Mate, the director of the Oregon State University Marine Mammal Institute, will introduce trainees to Pacific gray whale biology and natural history at the Nov. 22 (Saturday) session. He has helped lead the training since co-founding the whale watching program in the late 1970s. For more information and to sign up, read article below:

Paternity study of right whales finds local fathers most successful

AUCKLAND, NZ – The first paternity study of southern right whales has found a surprisingly high level of local breeding success for males, scientists say, which is good news for the overall genetic diversity of the species, but could create risk for local populations through in-breeding. Results of the study, by researchers at the University of Auckland, Oregon State University and the New Zealand Department of Conservation, have just been published in the journal Molecular Ecology.

Living Whales in the Southern Ocean Symposium 27-29 March 2012

The Symposium and Workshop on ‘Living whales in the Southern Ocean: Advances in methods for non-lethal cetacean research’ is scheduled for 27-29 March 2012, in Puerto Varas, Chile. The symposium and workshop are an initiative of the Southern Ocean Research Partnership (SORP), a multi-national programme to advance the conservation agenda in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and to improve our scientific understanding of the population dynamics and ecological roles of whales in the Southern Ocean.  Please check the website for registration information.

BBC Interviews Scott Baker about Humpback migration

Scott Baker was interviewed by the BBC regarding humpback whale migrations for their website "World on the Move".  For a link to the website and audio recording, please click on link to story.

Pew Marine Fellow Scott Baker Studies Dolphins in Gauguin's Paradise

Scott Baker is investigating genetic diversity of dolphins around the South Pacific as part of his Pew Marine Fellowship project, “A Pattern of Dolphins.” Baker, a 2011 fellowship recipient and a professor and associate director at the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, and his Ph.D. student, Renee Albertson, recently participated in a survey of the islands’ waters.

Dispatch from Ireland: Using DNA to track Humpback Whales

DUBLIN—Dr. Scott Baker, a pioneer in the use of DNA to better understand the population structure, abundance, and genetic diversity of dolphins and whales, spoke recently at University College Dublin about new research that could help shape conservation measures for North Pacific humpback whales.

'Flex' Leads Researchers to Five Endangered Western Gray Whales

The saga of Flex the whale continues to deliver surprises a year after the 13-year-old male western (North Pacific) gray whale was tagged and took scientific observers on a four-month, satellite-tracked ride, far from the Asian coast where he was expected to migrate, across the Bering Sea, through the Gulf of Alaska and down the west coast of North America.

Coastal visitors may encounter whales – but what kind are they likely to be?

For the past several weeks, gray whales that spent the spring breeding or calving in the waters off Mexico have been arriving in the Pacific Northwest to feed for the summer and fall, including areas along the Oregon coast. But gray whales aren’t the only species of whale that can be seen off Oregon, according to experts at Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute.

Beastly Appetites: The Animals We Love Too Much to Eat

"Hambleton took the meat, froze it, and the following morning sent it by courier to Scott Baker, the associate director of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University and an expert in cetacean molecular genetics. Baker, who recently established a database of whale, dolphin, and porpoise DNA, identified the meat as sei, the fourth largest of the baleen whales."  [The New Yorker, Nov. 4, 2013]

Whales tagged in anticipation of another marathon journey

Bruce Mate, director of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, who has been part of the satellite tagging team both years, said he expects the Russian whales to stay around Sakhalin Island until January, which is when Flex took off.

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