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 Cet...

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 micro...

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...

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...

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...

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 E...

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 t...

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...

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 s...

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 Departm...