The Whalenerd‘s Podcast

We were granted early screening access to the new film The Loneliest Whale: The Search for 52. This is a story that we have touched on briefly in recent previous episodes. The film does a great job of showing how field research actually works with large whales. Whether you have heard of the legend of the 52 Hz whale or not you will learn and thing or two and enjoy the film! 

This week we had artist and conservationist Tracie Megumi as a guest. We chatted with her about her work as an artist, and her work with Dolphin Project. Art, science, conservation are all things that we really believe should go hand in hand to reach the general public about protecting our oceans, and this was one of the main focuses of our discussion with Tracie.

Episode 80 - Flues & Blues This week Katlyn and Slater discussed fin whale / blue whale hybrids and blue whale studies from across the Pacific. There is always more to learn about these two ocean giants - including that they interbreed! Flue, a well-documented fin whale / blue whale hybrid in California and Mexico was a prominent feature of a recent paper, but they are not alone out there in the w...

This week we had the chance to chat with John Calambokidis from Cascadia Research Collective. It was quite a long chat, but as you can imagine, we can talk about whales all day! John is one of the large whale research rockstars in the whale world. We had so much fun talking with him about his work with blue whales and humpback whales. It was so inspiring to hear John talk about conservation and th...

This week our special guest was Ted Cheeseman. Ted has worked over the years as a guide, expedition leader, and trip organizer for Cheeseman's Ecology Safaris. He is also a cofounder of Happywhale, a community science project for whale photo identification. We talked all things Happywhale with Ted and had so much fun chatting with him!

Buckle up! This is a long one. Who knew we could talk about gray whales for over an hour?! In addition to talking about our sightings, we covered a wide variety of gray whale topics. We talked about possible historic breeding grounds in the Mediterranean, Atlantic gray whales, vessel strike risk, migration pace in the North Pacific, and the final season report from San Ignacio and Magdalena Bay la...

In this episode we caught up on a few weeks of sightings from California for Adam and Slater and sightings from Massachusetts for Katlyn. We also talked about some on going news stories that we have been following from the North Atlantic. The killer whales and boat interactions off the coast of Spain and Portugal are still occurring and there have been guidelines published for mariners transiting...

This week we talked about some news stories from earlier in the spring with sightings of killer whales and a humpback whale in the Gulf of Mexico. We also talked about some general information about marine mammals in the gulf. Lastly we talked about a recent paper that came out on modeling habitats for cetaceans in the Gulf of Mexico. This was a fun break from the normal set of news and places tha...

Secrets of the whales airs today! Here is a little teaser from us. Feel free to listen before you watch, but be warned there are one or two small spoilers in there. Let us know what you think of the series! Happy Earth Day.

This is a special minisode! A little different than our normal routine. We were able to have a zoom call interview with Brian Skerry (photographer and story teller) and Raphaelle Thibaut (composer) from Secrets of the Whales. This 4 part series airs on Disney + on April 22, but is also a recently released book and next month’s National Geographic Magazine cover story. We are so grateful for the op...

In this episode we talked about a marine mammals species that we don’t talk about very often, manatees. We gave a brief overview of all manatee species and then focused primarily on the Florida manatee, a sub species of West Indian manatee. They have been in the new recently due to a large number of animals dying this winter in Florida in particular. We also talked about some updates with our host...

This week the main topics we talked about were focused on understanding human emotions while creating effective science communication strategies, conservation campaigns and understanding the opinions that influence policies and regulations. Human emotions plays a big role in the receptiveness of conservation messaging and policies. We discussed how important it is to consider this dimension when c...

In this episode we had some ocean news including an article on cuttlefish intelligence, dolphins in the Potomac River and an update on the North Atlantic right whales. Adam is officially back on the water, so we get to hear about ocean adventures from all four hosts! We also discussed a recent paper on vessel behavior and humpback whales in Maui Nui, a summary paper on soundscape in the ocean and...

In this Episode we discussed several articles talking about the research and observations that are coming out of the “andropause” that humanity has done during the COVID-19 crisis. Humans have shifted where they are in the environment during this time of isolation and crisis. What will we learn from this in regards to the environment?  We also talked about our sightings and Slater is back on the w...

In this episode, we covered a few news items about cloning efforts with endangered weasels and whale fossils, because they were fun and new developments in science. We gave a recap of Whale Tales virtual event day 1. A lot of the talks were about whale songs, including a mind-blowing one from Roger Payne. More to come from Whale Tales in future episodes. We also had some updates on the status of N...

In this episode we covered a report that came out last fall about what whale watchers looked for in a whale watch tour operator, and their contributions to the local economy surrounding Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. We also had an update about the killer whales that have been attacking boats in the Canary Islands and a Gray Whale UME update.  We also discussed the new mask mandate fro...

In this episode, we unpacked a few more scientific papers as a follow-up to our conversations about the southern resident's killer whales. We also talked about the Senate hearings in Washington state that took place this past week about salmon habitat restoration and the commercial whale watching license program. We shared our thoughts on this frustrating situation. After this episode, we will be...

In this episode we checked in with our friends Sara and Jeff from Maya's Legacy on San Juan Island. We talked to them about what whale watching has been like since COVID started. Sharing a border with Canada, reductions in travel, and shelter in place orders have made life complicated and interesting for the boat based ecotourism operations in the Salish Sea. On top of all of that, there is a whol...

In this episode we talked about some whale news including updates on North Atlantic right whales, manatees, and upcoming conferences. We also talked about a film project that Adam was involved in and the Octopus Teacher. Katlyn also had a recommendation for the film I Am Greta on Hulu. We had some great discussions around the contributions of whales to the environment and how they contribute more...

Happy new year! We covered a lot of whale news in this episode. Some of it was good news and some of it was less good... We covered right whale news, whale watching regulations in Washington, blue whales and more! We also have news! Katlyn is back in Maui. It’s been an interesting turn of events this fall with the Hawaiian islands reopening - so she decided to give it a try. We will keep you poste...

This is our last episode of 2020. We answered questions that were sent to us by listeners over the past few weeks. We talked about where are good places to take kids whale watching, migration route and feeding ground changes due to climate change, camera settings that we use, and recent whale sightings. We also got off on a few tangents including some conservation topics and science communication....

This episode was packed with lots of whale news! We had all kinds of updates about right whales, whale calves, whales in new places, a new species of whale, and more. This led us to a discussion about how cetaceans and humans co-exist and how we can do that better. 

\This week we talked more about Adam’s background in his whale/marine career. Eric also just took a road trip up to Oregon and Washington. So we were all feeling nostalgic about our trips and times spent in the Pacific Northwest. We also talked about some recent pieces of whale news and our most recent sightings and adventures. 

We have an exciting announcement! We have officially added a new cohost to the whalenerds team. We want to introduce you to Adam Ernster. He has been on the podcast as a guest a few times with us but now he will be on with us regularly. Listen in to minisode 6 to hear more about him. We are looking forward to working with Adam and bringing some new momentum to whalenerds over the next few months....

In this episode, we all checked in from up and down the California coast and Delaware! Katlyn is working a boat delivery on the East Coast at the moment. We talked about the boat delivery and recent trips in addition to some updated whale news. There was a cool match from the Southern Hemisphere from Happywhale, the orca attacks on boats near Portugal are continuing, and we talked about a call to...