If you thought that talking about exfoliating marine mammals was a bore, you have never met Skyla Walcott. Our guest this week explains why moulting is so important for seals and sealions. Skyla goes in great detail about her research on Spotted and Weddell seals and why whiskers are so important to both pinnipeds and researchers.

Show Notes:

UCSC Pinniped Lab: https://pinnipedlab.ucsc.edu/

Whisker growth study: http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps/v554/p213-224/

UAA Burns Lab: https://burnslab.wixsite.com/burnslab

Molting study: https://academic.oup.com/conphys/article/8/1/coaa022/5815654

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This week guest Dr. Mariano Sironi, Founding Member and Scientific Director of the Instituto de Conservación de Ballenas (ICB), talks about southern right whale research and conservation efforts in Argentina.

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This week’s guests are Josh London and Erin Moreland who talk about their seal research in the Arctic, using cutting-edge methods from tagging to aerial surveys.

Relevant Link – Protected Marine Life In Alaska: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/region/alaska#protected-marine-life

Relevant paper: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1890/07-1032.1

This week Dr. Ashley Scarlett talks to Karli Chudeau, a Ph.D. student at UC Davis, who studies the welfare and behavioral development of Pacific harbor seal pups in the wildlife rehabilitation center at The Marine Mammal Center. Karli explains her research and why “behavioral enrichment” is so important for seals, their welfare, and their successful reintroduction to the wild.

Referred Published paper: Enrichment reduces stereotypical behaviors and improves foraging development in rehabilitating Eastern Pacific Harbor Seals (Phoca vitulina richardii)

@KarliRChudeau

Karliricechudeau.com

Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karliricechudeau/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KarliRChudeau

Editor / Contributor: https://theethogram.com/

Affiliations: The Marine Mammal Center

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This week’s guest, Dr. Leslie New, talks about the usefulness and importance of statistics in marine mammal science. She also talks about how seemingly minor impacts on individual marine mammals can, in the long term, have impacts on the health of a population of a species.

https://labs.wsu.edu/leslie-new/

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Minke Witteveen, a Ph.D. student at the Nelson Mandela University talks to Dr. Ashley Scarlett about her research that focuses on the ecological and social aspects of whale-watching tourism in Plettenberg Bay. 

Minke Witteveen’s short documentary:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2554901594737117

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This week’s guest Jose Palazzo, a wildlife conservation manager at the Brazilian Humpback Whale Institute (https://josetruda.wordpress.com). Jose talks about whale conservation, and especially the proposed South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary. A Deputy Commissioner for the International Whaling Commission, Jose goes over the history of the International Whaling Commission, what it is like being a Deputy Commissioner, and how the IWC has evolved. He also talks about why science communication is so important for whale conservation, and the vital importance of marine protected Areas (MPAs) for whales.

https://marinemammalscience.libsyn.com/mms-54-the-south-atlantic-whale-sanctuary-the-iwc-and-whale-conservation

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