Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Aquatic Mammals - A Historical Perspective

Beginning in 1970, DeFran began a professorship in the Psychology Department at SDSU. Later, he worked with the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, CA, assuming responsibility for an ongoing boat-based photo-ID project designed to assess the population size and range characteristics of bottlenose dolphins in north San Diego County. Since 1984, Defran has conducted, and directed the Cetacean Behavior Laboratory’s dolphin population studies along the Southern California and Baja California Norte’s Pacific Ocean coastline, in the coastal waters of Belize, within Florida’s Indian River Lagoon, in the estuarine and coastal waters near Charleston, SC, and more recently, in the coastal waters of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. 

Dr. Burney LeBoeuf is Professor Emeritus of Biology at the University of California at Santa Cruz. With his background in Reproductive Endocrinology, Ecology, and Behavioral Biology, he has been a leader in research on marine mammals for many decades and known especially for ground-breaking studies of social behavior; diving behavior, diving physiology and migrations of seals, using wearable microcomputer, time-depth recorders, and satellite tags. 

Dr. Swartz graduated with his doctorate from the University of California at Santa Cruz. He's researched and published widely on gray whales and their breeding habitats in Baja California. Dr. Swartz has served as a consultant to the Mexican government’s Ministry for the Environment, Natural Resources, and Fisheries, and worked for Ocean Conservancy, the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission, and the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service.

Dr. Boyd's research field is in marine ecology with a specialization in marine mammals and he has awards for his research in polar science, zoology and marine science. Dr. Boyd led a UK research program in Antarctica for 14 years, has led several international research projects as chief scientist, and advises the UK Government about issues concerning marine management. 

Dr. Ketten is an American senior scientist whose known for her work as a neuroanatomist. Her research combines biomechanics and acoustics to investigate hearing and noise issues affecting humans, and marine animals.

In this episode we learn a bit about the career path of one of the scientists who helped to shape the marine mammal field, Dr. James Buddy Powell.

Jim is a specialist in the role of apex predators in the marine environment and has conducted field research in Alaska, California, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, and Russia. He is known for studies of sea otters and kelp forest ecosystems, from which he studied influences of predators on the distribution and abundance of plants through what has since come to be widely known as a “trophic cascade.” 

Mr. Moore retired with 38 years of Federal Service with the Department of Defense and the Navy Marine Mammal Program, where he led the Scientific and Veterinarian Support Branch, Biosonar Program Office, and System Development Branch. His research specialized in psychoacoustics and biosonar. He co-edited Animal Sonar: Processes and Performance, organized and conducted many international meetings on marine mammals and echolocation, published over 80 peer-reviewed scientific articles, given hundreds of technical presentations and innumerable briefings for scientific, governmental, and sponsoring audiences.

Dr. Terhune is known for his research on communication and behavior of marine mammals with particular emphasis on underwater communication of seals. His research projects included examining aspects of harp and Wed- dell seal vocalizations to reduce masking effects of background noise, and influences of underwater sounds from acoustic harassment devices used at aquaculture cage sites in the Bay of Fundy. Jack is also honored within his community at the University of New Brunswick, where his has been awarded the Distinguished Service Award for service as chair of the Biology Department and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies. 

Dr. Ralls is a zoologist, conservationist, and Senior Research Zoologist Emerita at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. Her research interests are in behavioral ecology, genetics, and conservation of mammals, both marine and terrestrial.

Dr. Nachtigall’s area of research interest primarily focuses on the sensory systems of odontocetes, including projects on low frequency hearing and temporary threshold shifts, phantom echolocation, echolocation detection of fishing nets to avoid bycatch, evoked auditory potentials and audiometric studies, hearing in echolocating whales, and rehabilitation and care for stranded cetaceans. 

Dr. Nobuyuki Miyazaki began his career as a research associate with the University of Ryukyus, Japan.  He obtained his Ph.D. in 1975, in Agriculture.  His thesis dealt with the “School structure of the striped dolphin”. He established a Japanese research team focused on understanding marine pollution and hazardous chemicals using marine mammals as an indicator and he has published more than 270 English and 13 Japanese peer-reviewed papers, 9 English and 51 Japanese books, and 7 English and 107 Japanese reports, and 316 presentations at National and International Conferences.  

Dr. Søren Andersen is perhaps best known for his work with harbor porpoise in the 1960s and 70s but had an exceptionally diverse career doing other things that interested him.

Dr. Lee Miller is known for his work in both marine mammal and terrestrial acoustics. He has always had one foot on land and one in the water.  His research focuses on hearing, sound communication, and biosonar in bats, toothed whales, and insects.

Dr. Gentry once wrote “Everyone I knew in the 1960s got into marine mammal research by chance. No one I knew back then planned to enter the field or had influential friends pulling strings. If one was in the right place at the right time and had an interest in the right subject, opportunities came their way.”

Dr. Robert (Bob) Brownell is known for his work on the biology and conservation of whales, dolphins, and porpoises globally, with most of his studies conducted in Mexico, South America, Japan, and Russia.  

Dr. John Nightingale was well known for his work at the Vancouver aquarium.  He was CEO of the aquarium for 25 years. More recently, he was known for co-founding the non-profit organization Ocean Wise, which endeavors to protect the world's oceans and address the sustainable seafood issues. Dr. Nightingale spent his time on the planet trying to save life on Earth 

Dr. Yasuhiko Naito is a Japanese scientist who earned his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo and began his career by working with harbor seals in Hokkaido and north in the Sea of Okhotsk in the 1960s and early 1970s.  He pursued the study of marine mammals when he began at the National Institute of Polar Research in 1978 and is probably best known for his use of animal-borne devices, or ABDs as they are known in the bio-logging scientific circles.  

Dr. Lockyer is a British scientist. In this episode she talks about how she entered the marine mammal field, her work in Bio-energetics, working for NAMMCO and much more.

In this episode I talk with Dr. Helene Marsh about her career path, her students, her varied research and marine mammal swim programs in Australia.

Dr. Würsig shares experiences about his work, mentors and general topics from his tenure as a scientist and professor.

Have you ever wondered what goes into publishing a scientific journal? In this episode we delve into that topic with Dr. Kathleen Dudzinski and Dr. Heather Maritzas Hill as they explain the ins and outs of science publishing.

Dr. Gisiner is now semi-retired but stays active in the field by conducting research that interests him, as well as writing and presenting on these interests. His most recent research looks at the Precautionary Principle and its problems for complex multivariate models of environmental risk. It’s a complicated issue.  In a nutshell, this means that protecting and recovering marine mammals isn’t as simple as it was 50 years ago. 

Today, I am going to revisit a conversation that I had in 2008, with a senior member of the marine mammal science community, Dr. Dan Odell.  Dr. Odell’ s Expertise is natural history and biology of cetaceans and manatees in the southeastern United States and cetacean mass stranding phenomena. Dr. Odell’s species of special interest include the Florida manatee, bottlenose dolphin, dwarf and pygmy sperm whales, and killer whales. Reproduction and growth of captive cetaceans is another focus of his study as well as the biology of the bottlenose dolphin in the Indian River Lagoon, Florida.

Today, I’m going a bit off course and revisiting a conversation that I had in 2008, with someone who had very little to do with the marine mammal community other than being married to one of its early members, Margaret Tavolga.  

William Tavolga ,or Bill as he liked to be called, was a teacher.  He was a professor of biology at City College in New York and also on the research staff in the Department of Animal Behavior at the American Museum of Natural History.  

He was one of the world’s leading authorities on fish sounds and is said to be one of the founding individuals of the marine bioacoustics field.  He did important studies of the mechanisms of fish sound production and acoustic communication. He did actually co-author one paper on dolphins.  

Dr. Robert Hoffman, Bob as he likes to be called is one of the world’s leading authorities on Antarctic Pinnipeds. In the early 1970s he became scientific program director for the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission where he played a major role in assessing threats and implementing the recovery and conservation efforts for Florida manatees, California sea otters, Hawaiian monk seals, and other endangered and threatened marine mammal species.

Dr. Bruce Mate is one of the world’s leading authorities on whales, and best known for pioneering the tracking of whales using satellite-monitored radio tags. 

Karen Pryor was a marine mammal trainer in the 1960s. She pioneered the use of behavioral science to develop the dolphin shows at Sea Life Park. Her work with dolphins, as head trainer and curator at Sea Life Park led to the first scientific paper on training creativity in animals. While at Sealife park, she did ground-breaking work on animal behavior and cognition, which eventually segued into what is now called clicker training, which is used by some trainers as a positive and humane way to work with animals.

More than 50 years have passed since Randy Wells began his career as a volunteer with Mote Marine Laboratory.  Currently, Randy is director of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, the longest, continuously running wild dolphin study in the world. This study keeps track of thousands of dolphins on Florida's west coast. If you would like to see the video interview then visit aquaticmammalsjournal.org

Dr. Jerry Kooyman a long-time member and mentor of the marine mammal community and American scientist discusses his numerous research projects and contributions that took him to Antarctica where he studied Leopard seals, Weddell seals, and Emperor Penguins.  His research topics included the comparative anatomy and physiology of respiration in air-breathing marine vertebrates, diving behavior, and exercise physiology of marine mammals and other aquatic vertebrates including marine birds, particularly the emperor penguin.

Dr. Roger Payne was an American scientist who is probably best known for his work with whales.  His career spanned more than fifty years and was largely spent in the pursuit of understanding whale song and promoting whale conservation.

Ken Balcomb was an American scientist who is probably best known for his work with killer whales.  His passion for whales was evident through out his life and his advocacy for the whales food, salmon, played an important part in trying to restore an out of balance ecosystem.  

Dr. Sidney Holt was a British biologist whose specialty, actually his passion was, saving large whales. He is probably best known for his conservation work with the International Whaling Commission once he realized that the current whaling quota structure was driving whale populations toward extinction.  Focusing his attention and his considerable mathematical prowess to protect and conserve large whale species, Dr. Holt provided scientific support to numerous non-governmental organizations that were working to stem the tide of whale kills and forcing whaling nations to only hunt in their own economic zones.  He used his scientific, communication, and diplomatic skills to turn the IWC from pro-hunting to a conservation body, a process that took decades of dedication.

Today, we are going off topic a bit to listen to a conversation that I was privileged enough to have a few years ago, in 2015. Dr. Walter Munk, the longest serving oceanographer in the United States, and perhaps the world, the one-time Secretary of the Navy, Chief of Naval Operations Oceanography, and Chair of the world-famous Scripps Institution of Oceanography, kindly agreed to meet with me and granted me one and a half hours, out of his still-busy schedule, for a video interview.  We are assisted with the interview by his friend Dr. Peter Lamb.

Dr. Perrin is best known for his work in documenting the unsustainable mortality of hundreds of thousands of dolphins per year in the tuna purse-seine fishery of the eastern tropical Pacific. His tenure in the field spanned nearly fifty years and he was one of the scientists whose work was responsible for implementing the marine mammal protection act.

I was fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to interview Sam for a couple of hours at the Navy dolphin facility in San Diego.  We sat outside on the floats of the dolphin pens with Coronado air base in the background while training ops were being conducted.  It’s possible you’ll hear some extraneous sounds from the jets and helicopters in addition to the dolphin blows.  Let’s listen to what Sam had to say about his career.

Whit talks about his perspectives of the marine mammal field and how he got there.  Beginning with a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, spending time in the Air Force, and finally a full career in marine bioacoustics.  His take, "Its ok to switch gears". 

In 2010 I had the opportunity to meet and conduct a video interview with Joe Geraci. Dr. Geraci was a scientist, a professor, a veterinarian, and one of the leading experts in marine mammal medicine.  In addition to this, he was a strong proponent of educating the public about sea life and the challenges affecting it.  He spent four decades in field work, science, medicine, and teaching people how to respect animals and the environment.  In this podcast are a few soundbites from a brilliant decades long career ... Enjoy!

Dr. Kuczaj was a professor at Southern Mississippi University and director of the marine mammal behavior and cognition laboratory.

In these excerpts he shares some thoughts and comments about his career and research while in the field.  

We explore a conversation that John Anderson had with Hardy Jones, in 2012.  Hardy planned a career as a journalist after graduating college, but as life would have it, something else caught his interest.  With his college degree in hand and a couple of journalism jobs under his belt, Hardy heard about a pod of spotted dolphins that visited and interacted with a team of treasure salvage divers working in the Bahamas.  Hardy released his first conservation film on dolphins in 1979.  This film, "Dolphin" helped to sway the tuna industry away from using dolphins as indicators and setting their nets on them.  Subsequently, he produced 76 additional conservation films and one book during his career.

Today we share a conversation with Reginald (Reg) and Margaret Bloom, who may have been the earliest professional wild animal collectors for European and American zoos. They began their career with animals in the 1940s and 50s in East Africa, specifically Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika, catching, collecting and transporting mammals, birds, and reptiles back to zoos in Europe and America.  He had an instinctive empathy for the needs of wild animals and birds brought into human care and one might say that these were the earliest roots for positive animal welfare.  Their contributions to the zoological world are legendary!

Dr. Taylor’s veterinary work flourished in Europe and globally over the span of 50 years.  He was blessed with superior intellect, superb observational and diagnostic skills, and endless academic curiosity but he also enjoyed a side career as a television presenter of studio-based animal programs.  David was extremely concerned with promoting and practicing high quality care, for zoo animals and stranded animals.  His views and practices took hold and helped to shape an area of the zoological field that is today known as “animal welfare.”

Dr. Herman was an American marine biologist who was best known for his research into sensory perception, communication, and echolocation of bottlenose dolphins. He founded the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1970. And, in 1993, together with Dr. Adam Pack, he founded The Dolphin Institute, which is a non-profit corporation dedicated to dolphins and whales through education, research, and conservation.  In our discussion he details how he became a scientist, accidentally and the story of how his dolphins were stolen.

Dr. Ronald Schusterman was a scientific pioneer in early marine mammal research.  He founded the Long marine lab in Santa Cruz, California where he studied sensory physiology and cognition of California sea lions, harbor seals, and elephant seals and conducted experiments to understand how they perceive and think about the world.  Early in his career, he helped too disprove a theory that sea lions used echolocation like dolphins and bats.

Dr. Scheffers contributions to science and the natural world of marine and terrestrial mammals covered more than five generations beginning in 1932.  He was perhaps one of the worlds first naturalists and conservationist, a scientist, a photographer and a prolific author with more than 29 books to he is name and 284 scientific publications to his credit, all of which he conveyed with the hand written word.  His early insights and discoveries formed some of the building blocks todays methodologies.     

Dr. Reynolds was a world-renowned marine mammal scientist and conservationist who worked with many species of marine animals but the largest portion of his work was devoted to the Sirenia, specifically manatees.

Over the course of his career, Dr. Reynolds had a tremendous impact on students, private individuals and organizations at local, national, and international levels.

World-renowned marine mammal acoustician and ecologist, Bill Evans shares a few stories and thoughts from his diverse career that spanned 5 decades.

Today I share some excerpts from a video interview that I conducted with Dr. Jeanette Thomas in 2014.

Dr. Thomas’s tenure in the biological sciences spanned more than four decades across several continents. She was one of the first women scientists conducting field research and was one of the world’s early leaders in marine mammal communication, behavior and education.