Lack of available salmon, increased vessel noise and disturbance, and high levels of persistent organic pollutants hinder Southern resident killer whale recovery. In addition to addressing these threats, the population is small enough that understanding and addressing health concerns also is important for recovery. Numerous agencies and organizations have been developing tools for remotely assessing individual and population health in killer whales and are collaborating on developing an electronic health database and electronic medical records for tracking information and for assisting managers with adaptive management and action where needed.

Joe Gaydos is a respected wildlife veterinarian and the Science Director for the SeaDoc Society, a science-based marine conservation program of the UC Davis Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center. For the last two decades, Joe has been working on wildlife and ecosystem conservation in the Pacific Northwest. He’s an expert on diseases that impact both human and wild animal health and works on species like seabirds, harbor seals, river otters, porpoise, and killer whales.

Photo by Maya Sears -collected under NMFS Permit #21348

The Cook Inlet beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) is a critically endangered, genetically distinct population found only in Alaska’s Cook Inlet. Over the past several decades, their numbers have declined dramatically due to subsistence hunting, habitat degradation, and human disturbance, falling to approximately 300 individuals by the early 2000s. This decline prompted their listing as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 2008. Recent aerial surveys indicate a potential stabilization, with current estimates near 330 individuals; however, the population remains highly vulnerable. To better understand this population, researchers at the Marine Mammal Laboratory employ a diverse array of tools—including aerial surveys, drone surveys, acoustic monitoring, and high-resolution satellite imagery—to assess distribution, abundance, and survival. This presentation will provide an overview of these research methods and highlight the insights they offer toward a comprehensive understanding of Cook Inlet beluga whales.

Kim Goetz currently works at NOAA, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle Washington where she focuses on the ecology, movement, distribution, and abundance of cetaceans. Kim produced the most recent abundance estimate for Cook Inlet belugas and is the pilot in command for beluga unmanned surveys. Kim is also currently co-leading a new initiative - Geospatial Artificial Intelligence for Animals (GAIA) - with the aim of creating an AI pipeline for detecting marine species in very high-resolution satellite imagery. Prior to NOAA, Kim completed her PhD at University of Santa Cruz where she studied the movement and foraging behavior of Weddell seals in the western Ross Sea Antarctica. Her research interests include Spatial ecology, marine mammal & seabird conservation, movement & behavior of animals, and science communication.