Registration Support for Students, Research Staff, and Faculty to Attend Scientific Conferences in Fall 2021
7th International Bio-logging Science Symposium (BLS7)

With support from the Oregon Gray Whale License Plate program to cover registration costs, three members of the WHET Lab participated in the 7th International Bio-logging Science Symposium (BLS7), 18-22 October 2021. BLS7 is a triennial international conference for researchers using animal-borne technologies to discuss their results and recent technical and analytical advances. This year's meeting was conducted entirely virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic so all presentations were pre-recorded. Our three...

Scientists still following far-ranging Varvara as Russian whale returns

NEWPORT, Ore. – After visiting three different lagoons in the Pacific Ocean side of Baja Mexico, a rare western gray whale named “Varvara” is migrating up the West Coast – presumably en route to her home range near Russia’s Sakhalin Island....By Friday, the 9-year-old female was near the Washington/Canadian border, traveling northward at a rate of up to 100 miles a day.

Scott Baker visits South Africa to lecture on conservation genetics

Professor Scott Baker, Associate Director of the Marine Mammal Institute, was in South Africa this month (May 2013) as a contributing lecturer at a workshop on Advances in Conservation Genetics. The workshop was sponsored by the American Genetic Association and hosted by University of Pretoria and the Southern African Wildlife College.

Beached whale will be buried

The whale was already dead when spotted from the air earlier this week, said Bruce Mate, executive director of Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine ...

Why Whale Tracking Matters (The Oregonian editorial)

This opinion piece focuses on funding for the Marine Mammal/Marine Genomics Building at the Hatfield Marine Science Center.

C Scott Baker conducts research on world's smallest and rarest dolphins

The population of the world’s smallest and rarest dolphins has dropped by half in the past seven years to an estimated 55 individuals, according to research released March 13 by the New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC), the University of Auckland and Oregon State University.

Researchers from OSU Study Whales Affected by DeepWater Horizon Spill

A team of marine mammal researchers from Newport, Oregon is headed to the Gulf of Mexico next week to tag Sperm Whales near the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010. They'll find out how the whales are doing 3 years later. Bruce Mate is Director of the Marine Mammal Institute at the Hatfield Marine Science Center. He says his team has been going to the Gulf region since before the oil spill.

Gray whale recovery called incorrect

The success story of the Pacific gray whales' full recovery from near-extinction is wrong, according to a new genetic analysis that pegs the current population at only one-third to one-fifth of historical levels.

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 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.

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.

 

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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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.

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