Marine Mammals

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Facebook on January 19, 2016, that they have documented the birth of a new Orca calf born in Puget Sound. The Center for Whale Research has confirmed the birth.

This is the ninth Orca born since December 2014 to the endangered population of killer whales in Washington state inland waters.

This conference will be held Saturday, March 12, 2016 – Wednesday, March 16, 2016, at Funchal, Madeira.

The theme of the conference is Into the Deep: Research and Conservation of Oceanic Marine Mammals.

Associated workshops will take place on the 12 and 13 March.

INVITED KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

• Professor Hal Whitehead of Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada, will be giving a talk entitled “Sperm whale societies of the Atlantic and Pacific: why so different?”;
• Robin Baird of Cascadia Research Collective, Washington, USA,  will speak on “Oasis in a desert sea: development of island-associated populations of open-ocean odontocetes in the Hawaiian archipelago”; and

Whales that get tangled up in fishing lines and other gear can be stuck towing it around for months or years. Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have found that heavy traps and bulky buoys can cause a whale to feel much more “drag” than loose ropes. And it can tire them out. The researchers published their new findings in the December Marine Mammal Science. Click here for the abstract of this article and to obtain a copy of the article.

There will be a Large Marine Vertebrate Session at the GoMRI Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science Conference. This conference will be conducted from  Monday, February 01, 2016, through  Thursday, February 04, 2016, at the Marriott Tampa Waterside, Tampa Florida.  Click here for registration and other information about this conference.