Marine Mammal Institute

“It seems like these big die-offs are driven more by conditions in the Arctic, which these days is probably a result of climate change,” Assistant Professor Josh Stewart said. Doctoral student Lisa Hildebrand shared that the body conditions of the Pacific Coast Feeding Group gray whales have been improving over the years, while the body conditions of whales going all the way to the Arctic have been getting worse. 

More than 150 sea lions have been found sick or dead along Oregon’s coast due to a bacterial outbreak of Leptospirosis this summer. Jim Rice is the stranding program manager for Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute. He joins Think Out Loud to share what the outbreak has looked like so far and how it compares to previous years.

Jim Rice, a stranding program manager, replied and said it simply appears to be the decomposed remains of a dead whale. “What looks like hair is the decomposing remains of other body tissues: muscle, nerves, tendons etc. I would estimate that this one has been dead for several months,” he said.

The biologically rich waters along the West Coast are prime feeding grounds for baleen whales, especially during summer. These waters also support busy international shipping routes to and from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in southern California, and Oakland, Richmond, Benicia, Redwood City, and San Francisco off central California. The Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory at UC Santa Barbara, along with a consortium of research and conservation institutions including MMI, have recently launched Whale Safe for the San Francisco Bay region. Whale Safe is a technology-based mapping and analysis tool designed to prevent fatal ship collisions with whales. Whale Safe was originally designed for...

Dawn Barlow and colleagues listened to the blue whale undersea chorus in the South Taranaki Bight, New Zealand. To their surprise, they found that the whales appeared to be unperturbed by natural seismic activity. 

A new study from a team including MMI Assistant Professor Mauricio Cantor found that sperm whales in the Pacific Ocean make distinct vocalizations that help them identify whales in different clans.

In 1995, Professor Scott Baker established research on southern right whales at the Auckland Islands, the same time as Stewart's research at Campbell Island. This collaboration led to a joint publication and acknowledgements of support in subsequent work.

When North Atlantic right whales get entangled in fishing gear, it can have long-term consequences for their populations. Not only can the energy cost of carrying the gear around cause the whales to become smaller, it can also result in them having fewer calves. “These impacts are influencing population growth rates,” said Joshua Stewart, assistant professor at the Oregon State University Marine Mammal Institute. 

MMI grad student and postdoctoral researchers were recently aboard the R/V Bell M. Shimada as part of ongoing marine mammal surveys. Listen to a 4-min story here to share in their excitement over finding the tiny crustaceans that whales call food.