SPEAKER SERIES 2008-2009
The Puget Sound Chapter of the American Cetacean Society Speaker Series does not meet during the months of July, August, & December.
15 April 2009 - Dave Rugh
How many gray whales are there and where are they?
Gray whales of the Eastern North Pacific population have a phenomenally long and predictable migration between the Arctic and Mexico. Surveys along this migratory route show that these whales generally follow the coast, passing close to shore at some key locations. The site used most routinely for calculating abundance is at the Granite Canyon research station near Carmel, California. Shore-based counts of whales migrating south past Granite Canyon have provided good estimates of population size. Results from studies conducted across four decades show that gray whale abundance has had a fairly steady increase but with a notable decline after 1998 followed by an apparent stabilization. As the population increases, it is approaching the carrying capacity of the environment - a highly variable feature that can hold back productivity or give latitude for more growth.
Dave Rugh is a Wildlife Biologist at NOAA Fisheries Service’s National Marine Mammal Lab (http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/nmml/cetacean/), studying Alaska’s gray whales, belugas, and bowheads, primarily for distribution and abundance. This has meant oversight of NOAA’s shore-based census of gray whales during their southbound migration past Granite Canyon in central California since the mid-1980s. Prior to that, Dave led a study of gray whales migrating through Unimak Pass in Alaska, and he has done aerial or ship-based surveys for marine mammals around most of Alaska. Dave has also been the project leader for aerial surveys of belugas in Cook Inlet since 1993, and he currently is program coordinator for several large surveys of marine mammals north of Alaska, including a multi-million dollar feeding ecology study of bowheads near Point Barrow. Since starting to work for NOAA in 1976, Dave has made several trips to Alaska or northwestern Canada each year, now totaling over 50 research endeavors. These surveys have resulted in well over 100 manuscripts on a dozen species in two dozen journals or books.
20 May 2009 - Laura Morse
Tales from the field: The lifestyle of a not so rich and famous marine mammal observer
Laura Morse, of NOAA Fisheries Service's National Marine Mammal Lab, will talk about what it's like to live in the field and her experiences on projects around the world. She will share photos, video and acoustic recordings of the rare and beautiful species studied and observed.
Laura Morse joined the Cetacean Assessment and Ecology Program at the National Marine Mammal in the spring of 2008. Laura is the field team leader for aerial surveys conducted in the Beaufort and Chukchi Sea and provides support for additional field research effort within CAEP. Laura has degrees in biology and anthropology from SUNY, Buffalo, NY and is currently working on a Masters in Coastal Zone Management through Nova Southeastern University, Florida. Prior to joining NMML, Laura spent the past 14 years working as a marine mammal field biologist worldwide on aerial, shipboard and land/ice based projects. She has participated in multiple large scale cetacean abundance surveys throughout US waters, the Norwegian Sea, Southern Ocean, Western Pacific, Indian Ocean and Asian waters and has specialized experience in field identification, photo-id and passive acoustics. Laura's favorite hobby in the field is photography of marine life , images from her collection will be presented here
17 June 2009 - Donna Sandstrom and Kelsey Moreno
the Whale Trail
details will be posted when available - in the interim, see http://www.thewhaletrail.org/
|
