This series highlights the latest and most exciting marine mammal science published in the Marine Mammal Science Journal. The SMM created this series to give scientists and citizens around the world a chance to engage with marine mammal scientists, learn and ask questions. All are welcome.

Join us on Thursday, 19 January 2023 at 3 PM PST / 6 PM EST / 11 PM GMT
for the next SMM Seminar Editors’ Select Series:
Investigating how humpback whales work together while bubble-net feeding
with Ms. Natalie Mastick

This event is free to attend and presented online via Zoom, but registration is required.
Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kNoCxVnBTFmrXO0uO_nBAg
Space on Zoom is limited to the first 500 attendees. The talk will also be streamed live on the SMM Facebook page.

About this talk:
In this study, Natalie and her co-authors tagged 26 bubble-net feeding whales and assessed differences in dive patterns between groups of various sizes. They found that whales participating in bubble-net dives adopted one of six dive strategies. More complicated dives were usually used in small groups. One dive type, the upward spiral, was malleable (it could have different numbers of rotations,) and was used across all group sizes. The authors also looked at whether the dive strategies changed based on the number of whales in the group. There were no differences in the strategies based on group size except when whales used an upward spiral strategy. The upward spiral technique changed based on how many whales were feeding together, suggesting that whales needed to maneuver less, and potentially work less, to effectively herd the prey to the surface. This finding shows that working together may benefit the whales by decreasing the amount of energy they expend to feed.

About the presenter:
Natalie is a marine ecologist with a research focus on marine mammal behavior, foraging ecology, and parasite ecology. She is a PhD Candidate in the Wood Lab in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington, and a Graduate Research Fellow with Oceans Initiative. For her PhD, she is studying the change in risk of parasite infections in marine mammals. Natalie is also a founding member and Research Associate with Sound Science Research Collective, where she researches humpback whale behavior in Southeast Alaska. Natalie received her B.S. in Marine Biology and B.A. in Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and her M.Sc. in Wildlife Science at Oregon State University.

Open access to all Marine Mammal Science papers is available to current SMM members. Open access to this article is made temporarily available to the public in the weeks around the presentation and can be found here.

Missed a presentation or want to share this series with a friend? All previous Editors’ Select  presentations are recorded and archived on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUc78IynQlubS2DVS1VZoplf_t42-yZOO

This series highlights the latest and most exciting marine mammal science published in the Marine Mammal Science Journal. The SMM created this series to give scientists and citizens around the world a chance to engage with marine mammal scientists, learn and ask questions. All are welcome.

Join us on Thursday, 15 December 2022 at 4 PM PST / 7 PM EST (Friday, 16 December at 12 am GMT)
for the next SMM Seminar Editors’ Select Series
Hormones and whales: what tiny molecules can tell us about the giants of the sea
with Dr. Valentina Melica

This event is free to attend and presented online via Zoom, but registration is required.
Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_bZI5tOxLSNy_s8xXOt1TUQ
Space on Zoom is limited to the first 500 attendees. The talk will also be streamed live on the SMM Facebook page.

About this talk:
Hormones are tiny molecules that regulate critical functions in the bodies of mammals, including the important job of maintaining an animal’s energy levels when facing challenging situations. We researched how the hormones cortisol and corticosterone, which are associated with regulating stress response and metabolism, were impacted by different aspects of the lives of blue and gray whales, including age, sex, reproductive status, season, and geographic location. We found that pregnant blue whales and nursing gray whales experienced higher energy demands and elevated hormone levels. This information is essential for understanding how whales cope with stressors caused by human activities.

About the presenter:
Dr. Valentina Melica is a research biologist specializing in endocrine analysis. She grew up in Italy, where she worked as an aquarist and snorkel guide in northeast Italy and earned a master’s degree from the University of Trieste, with a research project on moon jellyfish. She completed her PhD at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where her research focused on reproductive and stress-related endocrinology in the eastern North Pacific populations of blue and gray whales. She now lives in North Vancouver, Canada, where she is research scientist with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, in the Marine Mammal Conservation Physiology program. In that position, she is studying biomarkers in killer whales and humpback whales.

Open access to all Marine Mammal Science papers is available to current SMM members. Open access to this article is made temporarily available to the public in the weeks around the presentation and can be found here.

Missed a presentation or want to share this series with a friend? All previous Editors’ Select  presentations are recorded and archived on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUc78IynQlubS2DVS1VZoplf_t42-yZOO

This series highlights the latest and most exciting marine mammal science published in the Marine Mammal Science Journal. The SMM created this series to give scientists and citizens around the world a chance to engage with marine mammal scientists, learn, and ask questions. All are welcome!

Join us on Thursday, 17 November 2022 at 6 PM GMT (10 AM PST / 1 PM EST)
for the next SMM Seminar Editors’ Select Series
Life in the fast lane: differences in behavior between lactating and non-lactating Antarctic fur seals at high latitudes
with Dr. Renato Borras-Chavez

This event is free to attend and presented online via Zoom, but registration is required.
Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_VJY7H6WBQA-aa4fNaV6Nvw
Space on Zoom is limited to the first 500 attendees. The talk will also be streamed live on the SMM Facebook page.

About the talk:
Mammals spend more energy when lactating (i.e., feeding their young) than at any other time in their lives. Antarctic fur seal mothers perform trips to sea to find food and then return to feed their pups, repeating this cycle for four consecutive months. By comparing at-sea behavior between lactating and non-lactating females carrying microprocessor instruments, we better understand the challenges of being a mother: they take shorter trips to get food (to return to their pups as quickly as possible), spend less time ashore (to start the cycle again as soon as possible), and modify their diving behavior to collect more food. Now that is a GREAT mom!

About the presenter:
Dr. Renato Borras-Chavez is a scientist from Chile. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology at Andres Bello University, Chile, and his master’s degree at San Diego State University, USA, working in kelp forest ecology. He started working with marine mammals while pursuing his Ph.D. at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. Since his first trip to Antarctica 10 years ago, he has been there seven times, including three long deployments for the project he is presenting here. After completing his Ph.D., he worked for three years with the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH), continuing his work on Antarctic pinnipeds. Today, he is a research associate at the Center of Applied Ecology and Sustainability (CAPES) and preparing to start a postdoctoral research project on leopard seal ecology at Baylor University. He was also the president and national representative of APECS Chile (the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists) until this year.

Open access to this article is made temporarily available in the weeks around the presentation and can be found here. Current SMM members have access to all Marine Mammal Science papers.

Missed a presentation or want to share this series with a friend? All previous Editors’ Select presentations are recorded and archived on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUc78IynQlubS2DVS1VZoplf_t42-yZOO

This series highlights the latest and most exciting marine mammal science published in the Marine Mammal Science Journal. The SMM created this series to give scientists and citizens around the world a chance to engage with marine mammal scientists, learn and ask questions. All are welcome!

Thursday, October 20th 2022 at 1 pm EDT (10 am PDT / 5 pm GMT) 
SMM Seminar Editors’ Select Series: Behavior related vocalizations of the Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris)
with Dr. Beth Brady

This event is free to attend and presented online via Zoom, but registration is required.
Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WnhO3mH4R8q3Y_euN-VTmQ
Space on Zoom is limited to the first 500 attendees. The talk will also be streamed live on the SMM Facebook page.

About this talk:
Florida manatees produce a variety of vocalizations, but their function is unclear. The goal of this study was to investigate if manatee vocalizations could be correlated with behavior. Multiple underwater microphones were used to record manatee vocalizations in four different environments and behaviors. Vocalizations recorded from resting, playing, stressed and feeding wild animals were statistically tested to determine whether vocalizations varied with behavior and calf presence. The length, amount of noise, and changes in pitch (frequency modulation) from vocalizations were also measured to investigate if they differed between behaviors. Results suggest manatees use few call types to vocalize and vary the structure of the call based on behavior. One call type was correlated with calf presence, and noisier calls were more frequently observed during play. The most common call manatees produced are called “squeaks”. Squeaks were longer in length and higher in frequency modulation when animals were stressed. This research provides a foundation for comparative studies on vocal behavior for the Florida manatee as well as studies on related species.

About the presenter:
Beth was born and raised in rural Pennsylvania and first found her interest in marine life on a family vacation.  She initially became a registered nurse, but after a few years of nursing realized her true passion was marine biology. She returned to school and got her undergraduate degree at Kutztown University, Pennsylvania. After graduation, she volunteered with multiple marine mammal and wildlife organizations and found her love of manatees through an extended internship at Florida Fish and Wildlife (FWC). After the internship, she completed her Master’s at Nova Southeastern University where she first became involved in studying underwater sound (acoustics) and manatee vocalizations. She completed her doctorate at Florida Atlantic University in 2020. She is currently a post doctoral research fellow at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, FL.
Dr. Brady’s primary research investigates vocal communication in manatee species. In addition, she is studying manatee behavior and ecotourism impacts, and recently started flying drones to assess Florida manatee body condition.

Open access to this article is made temporarily available in the weeks around the presentation and can be found here. Current SMM members have access to all other Marine Mammal Science papers.

Missed a presentation or want to share this series with a friend? All previous Editors’ Select  presentations are recorded and archived on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUc78IynQlubS2DVS1VZoplf_t42-yZOO

This series highlights the latest and most exciting marine mammal science published in the Marine Mammal Science Journal. The SMM created this series to give scientists and citizens around the world a chance to engage with marine mammal scientists, learn and ask questions. All are welcome!

Thursday, July 21st (4 pm PDT / 7 pm EDT / 11 pm GMT)
SMM Seminar Editors’ Select Series: Response of humpback whales to biopsy sampling
with Dr. Solène Derville

This event is free to attend and presented online via Zoom, but registration is required.
Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_lo_3OmCmQqK8Ka7_DIaJ3g
Space on Zoom is limited to the first 500 attendees. The talk will also be streamed live on the SMM Facebook page.

About this talk:
Tissue biopsy sampling from cetaceans is essential to address many biological, ecological, and behavioral questions that can ultimately inform conservation. However, these research activities are invasive and their effect deserves to be investigated, particularly when performed on young individuals (calves and juveniles). We assessed the short-term response of humpback whales to boat approach and remote biopsy sampling in a breeding ground according to age-class, sex, female reproductive status, social context, sampling system, habitat, and repeated sampling with more than 20 years of data collected in New Caledonia, South Pacific.

About the presenter:
Dr. Solène Derville conducts research in animal behavior and spatial ecology, including the way animals interact with their environment, move, and are distributed in geographical space. In general, Dr. Derville seeks to develop innovative and multidisciplinary methods to study the multi-scale space use patterns of marine megafauna species. She obtained her Master’s degree in biology from the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Lyon, France, and her PhD from Sorbonne Université studying humpback whales in the South Pacific. Dr. Derville is currently a postdoc at the Geospatial Ecology of Marine Megafauna lab, in the Marine Mammal Institute (Oregon State University), although she is still based in New Caledonia where she has lived and conducted research for seven years.

Open access to this article is made temporarily available in the weeks around the presentation and can be found here. Current SMM members have access to all other Marine Mammal Science papers.

Missed a presentation or want to share this series with a friend? All previous Editors’ Select presentations are recorded and archived on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUc78IynQlubS2DVS1VZoplf_t42-yZOO

This series highlights the latest and most exciting marine mammal science published in the Marine Mammal Science Journal. The SMM created this series to give scientists and citizens around the world a chance to engage with marine mammal scientists, learn and ask questions. All are welcome!

Thursday, June 16th at 4 PM ADT (12 PM PDT / 3 PM EDT / 7 PM GMT )
SMM Seminar Editors’ Select Series: Examining the Eastern North Atlantic right whale: insights from genetic analysis
with Dr. Brenna Frasier

This event is free to attend and presented online via Zoom, but registration is required.
Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_hLrr4SKAQi-wLPXyakLgtA
Space on Zoom is limited to the first 500 attendees. The talk will also be streamed live on the SMM Facebook page.

About this talk:
The North Atlantic right whale was once present in both the Western and Eastern North Atlantic, but has been extirpated from the Eastern North Atlantic as a result of over a thousand years of whaling activities. It has not been identified whether the animals that were once present in the Eastern North Atlantic were a distinct population from the small group of animals remaining today in the Western North Atlantic. Whaling records suggest that animals in each of these regions may have had distinct habitats, and possibly distinct populations, but what does genetic data suggest? To address this question, we examined the genetic characteristics of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA from 24 whale bones that range in age from the 4th to the 20th century from around the North Atlantic. The interpretation of the results is challenging, especially in a species that has a long history of commercial whaling. However, all evidence combined suggests that there was some degree of isolation between whales in each of these two regions.

About the presenter:
Brenna Frasier is trained as a biologist and has studied marine mammals for almost 25 years. Her research has focused on DNA analysis (primarily ancient DNA) as a tool to address evolutionary, conservation and species management questions with a particular interest in examining human use of whales over the last millennia, whether for commercial or subsistence use. This has culminated in projects examining 20th century whaling in Antarctica, 16th century Basque whaling of right and bowhead whales along the coast of Canada, and Norse whale-use over the past 1000 years around the North Atlantic. While most of her work has focused on marine mammals such as the North Atlantic right whale, beluga whale and Maritimes walrus, she has also studied a variety of other animals, including the Sable Island horses and several bat species.

Brenna has a passion for facilitating science and natural history learning and communicating science in unique and natural environments which has led to an array of other outreach-based projects including the development of marine mammal and forensic science camps for teens, supporting a local Forest School, writing for an array of audiences and completing field guides to assist in Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) studies on marine mammals in the Canadian Arctic. She is currently the Curator of Zoology of the Nova Scotia Museum, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Open access to this article is made temporarily available in the weeks around the presentation and can be found here. Current SMM members have access to all other Marine Mammal Science papers.

Missed a presentation or want to share this series with a friend? All previous Editors’ Select  presentations are recorded and archived on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUc78IynQlubS2DVS1VZoplf_t42-yZOO