Aquatic Mammals - A Historical Perspective

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 endangere...

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 wh...

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 aquaticmammalsjour...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 h...

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 ani...

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...

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...

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...

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.