Voyage to the White Shark Cafe
Principal Investigator Dr. Barbara Block and her team at Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station have been using electronic tags to track shark migrations for years. She and her colleagues from the Monterey Bay Aquarium have found that a large number of white sharks that forage each fall in the waters off California migrate annually to an open ocean region halfway between Hawaii and Baja. Fattened on a rich diet of seals and sea lions in the National Marine Sanctuaries along the central California coast, adult white sharks in winter and spring congregate in a patch of open ocean roughly the size of Colorado, known as the White Shark Café. Little is known about this remote sub-tropical environment and the behavior of sharks that convene there. Why would these large predators choose to leave the eastern Pacific’s coastal cornucopia for this remote oceanic desert?
Dr. Barbara A. Block holds the Charles and Elizabeth Prothro Professorship at Stanford University. Her research is focused on how large pelagic fish utilize the open ocean. She and her team have pioneered the successful development and deployment of electronic tags on tunas, billfishes and sharks.The combination of lab and field research has led to a rapid increase in the understanding of movement patterns, population structure, physiology and behaviors of pelagic fish and lamnid sharks. Dr. Block was a co-Chief Scientist for the Tagging of Pacific Predators program (TOPP), organized under the Census of Marine Life. She earned her B.A. at the University of Vermont, and began her oceanographic career at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution with Dr. Francis G. Carey. She earned a Ph.D. in 1986 at Duke University and a postdoc at the U. Pennsylvania. She was an assistant professor at the University of Chicago (1989-1993) and joined the Stanford faculty in 1994. The Block lab has published over 200 peer reviewed papers, and Block has two edited books on tunas, and has received several awards including the NSF Young Investigator Award, a MacArthur Fellowship, a Pew Fellowship for Marine conservation, the Rolex Award for Enterprise, and the Benchely Award for Ocean Science. Block founded the TAG A Giant at The Ocean Foundation to elevate the science and conservation initiatives for bluefin tunas globally. Block has helped produce 5 films on her research subjects with Discovery, Disney and Nat Geo, the most recent award winning film completed in 2016 on local white sharks is called Blue Serengeti.
The Cats of the Sea: The Secretive Lives of Harbor Seals
Jim Harvey received his B.S. from San Jose State University, his Master’s degree at Moss Landing Marine Labs, and his Ph.D. from Oregon State University. He served on the MLML faculty from 1989 until 2013 when he became the Director. He is a vertebrate ecologist, studying foraging ecology, population dynamics, and health of sea turtles, seabirds, and marine mammals. He served as the major advisor for 89 Master’s students, has more than 125 publications, and brought in more than $7 million in research funding.
Ecology & Conservation of Pacific Albatrosses
Caren Loebel-Fried is an award-winning artist and author from Volcano, Hawai`i. Birds, conservation, and the natural world are the foundations for her work. Caren spent five weeks on Midway Atoll counting and researching albatrosses and helps many organizations in Hawai’i that work with wildlife education, forest bird recovery, and endangered seabird translocations. Breck Tyler is a researcher affiliated with the Institute of Marine Sciences at UC Santa Cruz, the University of Washington, and Northeastern University. Breck has worked as a seabird researcher at Midway Atoll since 1988. He has studied the nesting and population ecology of albatrosses, tropicbirds, and other species. He has conducted environmental assessments to protect seabirds from man-made hazards and non-native rodents. He currently leads teams of citizen-scientists conducting annual censuses of nesting albatrosses.
Polar Bears and Climate Change
Dr. Anthony Pagano is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with the San Diego Zoo Global’s Institute for Conservation Research. Anthony’s research has taken him to the Arctic sea ice north of Alaska where he has studied polar bears for more than 11 years. Anthony uses remote wildlife tracking technology to examine the movement patterns, behavior, foraging ecology, and energy expenditure of polar bears to better understand the effects of climate change on the species. Anthony integrates data from wild polar bears with physiological measurements collected from bears at zoos to aid this conservation research. Anthony has collected point of view remote video from wild polar bears on the sea ice to understand polar bear behavior and feeding rates, built a treadmill to measure the energetic costs of walking in polar bears, and built a swim flume to measure the energetic costs of swimming in polar bears.
Where in the World is Wisdom? The Albatross of Midway Atoll and the Conservation Efforts Against an Invasion of Plastics and Non-Natives
Our June speaker will be Greg McCormack, who will talk to us about “Wisdom,” a Laysan Albatross that is the oldest known tagged bird in the world, and about finding hope at one of the most remote islands in the world, which is threatened by an invasion of plastic and rising seas. He will share with us his thoughts on rare and wild places and what a powerful experience it was to be amongst two million seabirds at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge earlier this year.
Greg has thirty years of experience developing interpretive programs for California State Parks, the National Park Service, The Nature Conservancy, Audubon, Catalina Island Marine Institute, NatureBridge, and as an environmental educator in the Peruvian Amazon. Greg has worked as the Big Sur District park interpretive specialist, as an Alaskan river guide, and as a kayak expedition leader in Glacier Bay and along the “Orca Highway” in the Salish Sea. He is a PADI Divemaster, and has led divers on underwater tours in dozens of island archipelagos in the South Pacific. Greg has been a naturalist in many parks, including Mount Rainier, Everglades, Grand Canyon, Hawaii Volcanoes, Point Reyes National Seashore, and Denali, among others. He has served as expedition leader, cruise director, lecturer and boat driver onboard adventure-travel expedition ships, guiding people to remote regions of the world. Greg has worked the last six years at Monterey Bay Whale Watch and just took a second job as a marine educator for the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, based at Crissy Field within the Golden Gate National Parks. Greg also did a five-year stint as an education specialist for NOAA’s Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. An endurance athlete, Greg has bicycled the entire length of the Americas – 18,500 rugged, adventurous miles through 20 countries – from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina
Wildlife Photography
Chase Dekker was born and raised in Monterey, California, where he was immediately introduced to the natural world. With whales, sea otters, seals, birds, and wildlife right on his doorstep, it wasn’t hard for him to fall in love with nature. He eventually moved to Washington State, where his passion for the outdoors took him to a brand new environment, filled with dense forests and mountains. Chase attended Western Washington University, where he earned degrees in Organismal Biology and Zoology to help him understand the species he would be photographing for the rest of his life. Immediately after college, Chase moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming where he spent nearly every day out in Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks photographing the spectacular wildlife and landscapes.
He has since moved back to Monterey so that he could be closer to the water and his family. Today, Chase has traveled across a good portion of the globe, from the high Arctic to the rainforests of Africa and the tropical waters of the South Pacific, all while bringing along his camera in an effort to document the invaluable wildlife and the land they call home. While not traveling or leading workshops, Chase works as a naturalist and guide aboard a whale watching vessel helping others experience the wonders of the ocean. During his photography career, he has been published in multiple magazines, articles, and newspapers, while also having some of his images shown on television networks such as ABC, PBS, and BBC. Some of his print publications include National Geographic, Lonely Planet, National Wildlife Federation, Nature’s Best Photography, and many others. Chase was also a winner in the Windland Smith Rice International Awards where his images were hung in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. Chase believes every photo tells a story and every story can inspire someone to make a change that will allow these great places and creatures a chance to last for generations to come.
How the ‘Killer’ became ‘Orca’
Dr. Jason Colby is professor of environmental and international history at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. His research focuses on the historical interactions between humans and marine mammals on the Pacific Coast. He is the author of Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean’s Greatest Predator (Oxford, 2018). His new research
examines the near-extinction and extraordinary recovery of the eastern Pacific gray whale.
Jason was born in Victoria, British Columbia, but raised in the Seattle area, where he worked as a commercial fisherman in Alaska and Washington. His book traces the history of human-orca interactions back to the time when they were shot and killed as a “vermin” species, to the 1960s and 70s when orcas were netted in Northwest waters and sent all over the world, until
state and federal laws finally shut down the practice. Although these captures were horrific, Dr. Colby is sympathetic to the captors, who operated in a different historic and moral context, and makes the point that captive whales provided the understanding of the species that led to the ethical imperative to save them. In Orca, Dr. Colby argues that we have a moral obligation to this now critically endangered population that helped transform our views of cetaceans. He writes, “In its preindustrial state, this coast was ideal for specialized predators who fed on fat, abundant chinook salmon… But … the Salish Sea was becoming an urban, saltwater lake — increasingly loud, empty and polluted.” Dr. Colby will be selling signed copies of his book following his presentation.
Killer Whales in Monterey Bay
Nancy Black is a marine biologist who received an M.S. in Marine Science from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and has owned and run Monterey Bay Whale Watch since 1992. She worked as a research director for the Oceanic Society on a population of spotted dolphins in the Bahamas, and on a program in Monterey Bay to conduct research on large baleen whales and dolphins during the 90’s. Nancy worked with NOAA and the Seattle Marine Mammal Laboratory for 12 seasons to research Killer Whales throughout Alaska, including the Aleutian Island chain. Nancy has contributed data and photo IDs of Humpback Whales and Blue Whales in Monterey Bay for Cascadia Research for over thirty years, and conducted aerial surveys for
several years in offshore waters along the Central Coast. She has worked with many film crews over the years, including Blue Planet 1, where she assisted with the first professional filming event of the predation of Killer Whales on Gray Whales, a National Geographic film focused on Killer Whales of Monterey Bay and advised filming on her boats for Blue Planet 2, PBS shows, and Animal Planet.
Nancy began her interest and research on Killer Whales as a student in the late 80’s. She continues to follow the Killer Whale population that is unpredictably sighted in Monterey Bay, ranging from southern California to Southeast Alaska, and has documented four generations of Killer Whales living in their matriarchal societies. Nancy was the first to document the very high levels of chemical pollutants (PCBs, DDTs) in these whales by collecting small samples of skin and blubber under permit. She has documented four different eco-types of Killer Whales in Monterey Bay, including discovering and identifying the endangered Southern Resident Whales in Monterey for the first time in 2000. Her passion for these highly intelligent and social
animals that live and hunt in family groups has continued, and she spends most days at sea during the peak time for transient Orca sightings in Monterey Bay in April and May. Nancy will give highlights of her experiences and observations with Killer Whales in Monterey Bay, including associations, movements, predation behavior and social behavior.
Research on Walruses and Beluga Whales
When IMS-UCSC research scientist Dr. Shawn Noren was asked by United States Geological Survey to “do a study on the bioenergetics of Pacific walruses” she had never seen a walrus, nor had she ever ventured to the Arctic. As Dr. Noren dove into the scientific literature, she realized that very little was known about these mysterious creatures. As her research unfolded, she found herself face to face with these enormous 1,800-3,700 lb creatures. Dr. Noren studied walruses for over five years, and her research was cited throughout the 2017 Pacific Walrus Species Assessment Report to determine to list walrus under the Endangered Species Act.
Dr. Noren has studied marine mammals for over two decades, and seeks to understand how the unique physiology of marine mammals enables them to function in their “extreme” environments. Her research has taken her to an uninhabited island in Nova Scotia to study gray seal diving, to Antarctica to investigate Weddell seal thermoregulation, and to Hawaii to examine dolphin calf swimming (this research was part of the 2013 legislative decision to strengthen the dolphin-safe label). Her research has demonstrated that immature marine mammals are born initially lacking the physiology required to survive at sea, making them particularly susceptible to habitat perturbations. Dr. Noren’s walrus research inspired her to study other Arctic marine mammals to aid in their conservation and management, and she is currently seeking funds to continue her research on beluga whales. If Dr. Noren’s research inspires you, please consider making (or asking your employer to make) a tax-free donation to support her research by either going to the secure web site: http://giving.ucsc.edu/ (enter the designation code IM020F, Marine Mammal Lab into the special instructions field) or request a donation form by emailing Dr. Noren at snoren@ucsc.edu.
Vaquita: Science, Politics, and Crime in the Sea of Cortez
When researcher Brooke Bessesen set out to write a book about the smallest cetacean she had no idea how high the stakes would be. Traveling into Mexico, she found a cartel drama unfolding. Over the next twenty-two months she followed the scientists studying vaquitas and the organizations and honest fishermen facing grave risk to save these tiny porpoises.
Attempting to reconcile the conflicts obstructing conservation amid rising violence and a plummeting vaquita population, Brooke found herself on a raw, personal journey to the doorstep of extinction. In this presentation, she shares stories from the field and helps clarify the historical and immediate forces driving a species to the brink. After her talk, she will be signing her new book Vaquita: Science, Politics, and Crime in the Sea of Cortez.
Brooke Bessesen has worked with wildlife for over thirty years. She’s been eye-to-eye with humpback whales and surrounded by free-flying California condors. She has hand-raised a baby wallaby, rehabbed a rattlesnake, trained a tiger, and photo-identified dozens of wild bottlenose dolphins. As a research fellow, Brooke’s marine studies in Costa Rica led to the naming of a new yellow sea snake, Hydrophis platurus xanthos. She is the author of seven books. Through her writing, Brooke strives to make science accessible. In 2010, she founded Authors for Earth Day, and many prominent kid-lit authors have joined the coalition to mentor young readers through special conservation-focused school visits.