The Whalenerd‘s Podcast

We had Amanda Padilla as a special guest this episode and Adam Ernster as a fill in co-host! We talked with Amanda about her work on boats in Maui, her commercial fishing business and her awesome new sun gear company: Kapa Sungear! We had a lot of fun on this one, and got in to some serious, but good tangents about sustainability, and sustainable consumerism and business practices. You can check o...

We debriefed Slater's all day trip with three people who were there! Slater, Eric and Adam all gave a recap of the trip. Katlyn also chimed in about her trips. We also chatted more with Adam about whale watching in Santa Barbara. A piece of whale news that we talked about was the new paper and designation of the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETPs) Killer Whales as a new ecotype of Killer Whales.

The gang's all here! Eric, Slater, and Katlyn were finally able to get together and catch up with each other. We talked about our reactions to the film A Life on Our Planet and recent whale news. We also tuned in to the livestream of the R/V Nautilus online and watched them collect a few invertebrates off of Anacapa Island.

In this episode we caught up with Slater after several months. We talked about how things have changed for him in the wake of the pandemic. Katlyn also had a few updates from back when she was laid off and some of her adventures in Massachusetts including a recent trip to the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

The band is back together! We had Eric and Slater back on as hosts with our special guest Erica Cirino. Erica works as a free lance writer and artist who often covers and shares stories about wildlife and human impacts. She has sailed across the gyres of the Pacific and Atlantic documenting and studying microplastics and plastic debris in our oceans. She is currently working on a book that will co...

Katlyn and Jamie have been off the water for a few days due to poor weather. So they made a podcast episode together! As some of you know, Katlyn is out in Gloucester, Massachusetts working with Jamie at Cape Ann Whale Watch. We talked about how Jamie got started in the marine world, her involvement at the Texas Sea Life Center and her job at Cape Ann Whale Watch. We also talked about her favorite...

Welcome back everyone! After a hiatus we are back with a new episode. Thank you so much for sticking with us throughout this wild time. For our first minisode back Katlyn gave us an introduction to the new area she is working in: Gloucester Massachusetts.

In this episode Katlyn and Eric talk about all the common hitchhikers on whales and dolphins - we even threw in manatees!  We talked about whale barnacles, whale lice, remoras, pennella and the various species they are observed on. The only obvious hitchhiker we forgot was diatoms!

This is the final episode of the three part series on whale song! This episode covers all mysticetes that sing besides humpback whales. While researching this episode, most of the journals had their articles on open or free access. Take advantage while you can! This may change back to pay walls once academic operations go back to "normal" post pandemic.  Stay safe and healthy out there.

Part 2 of the series on whale song. Do we know why the winged whale sings? The long and short of it is, we don't. But Katlyn broke down some of the leading theories from over the years of what scientists have studied. This is a broad summary of some of the leading theories as to why humpback whales in particular might sing. 

Introducing minisodes! During this time we are not able to go out on the water - so we are launching mini episodes. These minisodes are more condensed information about one particular topic. If you have suggestions for topics - send them to us via instagram or facebook.  This first minisode is part of a three part series on whale song. This first part is: How whale song saved a species. Katlyn res...

We are all locked down and laid off! But we had quite a few sightings to report from all our trips before the shut downs. Slater did manage to almost get a full week in on his Baja trip before having to cancel it all. We also covered a few whale news items. The partial birth of a humpback whale in Maui from February - the mom and baby we re-sighted! Six weeks later and both appear healthy! We also...

We had another special guest this week! Robbie Mueller has been one of our longtime listeners and was our first supporter on patreon. We are so honored by his support of our work. Robbie was inspired by a whale watch trip he went on in Alaska and by listening to our podcast to become more involved in the field of marine mammal science. He is currently working on his Master's degree at Texas A&M Co...

This week we were able to chat with Dr. Robin Baird from Cascadia Research Collective!  Robin works primarily on odontocete species around the Hawaiian Islands. We asked him questions about his work, funding, past studies and how he got involved in marine biology in the beginning.  Check out his projects at this web address:  http://www.cascadiaresearch.org/projects/hawaii

Slater and Katlyn have some announcements to make! Slater just launched his new apparel line: Open Seas Co.  https://openseasco.com/ Katlyn just accepted a job for the summer at Cape Ann Whale Watch! She will be in Gloucester from mid-May to October. There are internship positions open if you want to join her out there volunteering this summer! We also covered our recent sightings and some whale n...

It was Slater's turn to come back to Maui this time! We had a great week of whale watching, snorkeling and island adventures.  We also went through some whale news and a quick recap of the Maui Whale Day events and Whale Tales Conference.

It's Eric's turn to visit Maui! He has had some amazing whale watch trips in addition to land sightings of turtles and chameleons! We also had quite a bit of recent whale news including an abandoned humpback calf in O'ahu and the recording of underwater footage of a partial humpback birthing event here in Maui!

Wow! It has been a year since we started this podcast. Thank you SO MUCH! This episode we talked about our latest sightings, some recent whale and ocean news, and whale snot!  This episode is also available via video format for our followers on patreon. If you want to see our antics while recording then join us on there! patreon.com/whalenerds

We had loads of whale news for this episode. Everything from dolphin by catch protests, solar flares in correlation with live strandings of whales to tracking whales from space via satellite. We also caught up on our recent sighings from California and Maui.  We also got a heart warming message on instagram from one of our listeners about how we have inspired her to pursue her cetacean aspirations...

We are all wrapped up with our holiday fun! Happy New Year to all of our listeners!  We all had a few whale watch updates from Monterey and from Maui. We also wrapped up 2019's journey as a podcast briefly and talked about all we had learned about whales this year! Nick Pyenson wrote a nice article for The Washington Post about all the cetacean discoveries we made this year that we skimmed through...

Slater and Katlyn gave a final update from Slater's visit in Maui. We also all covered recent sighting reports from Monterey and Maui.  The rest of the episode we talked about the latest whale news and papers.  Thank you all for following along with us this year! Happy holidays. Please have a safe and enjoyable holiday season.

Slater migrated to Hawaii! Slater met up with Katlyn in Maui to come and see the humpbacks in early season. We had a great trip together for sunset in Lahaina. We also attended at talk about deep sea corals. We also have a special guest Amber Caldwell. She moved from Monterey with Katlyn to work for Pacific Whale Foundation. This is her first whale season so we asked her about her experience thus...

We are back after the holiday weekend. Weather has been pretty tough this week in Monterey so Eric and Slater haven't been out on the ocean too much lately. Katlyn was able to go out on snorkel trips and whale watch trips out in Maui.  Great humpback action in Monterey Bay when the weather is manageable. Whales are starting to arrive in Maui too! Pretty soon there will be loads of whales for Katly...

Thanks for your patience during our hiatus! Katlyn is getting settled in on Maui, Slater just got back from San Juan Islands and Eric has been holding down the fort in Monterey but he did make it out to the Farallon Islands last week!  Listen in to hear us catch up with each other on all our adventures. We are starting to get in to a routine and we were successful with recording via skype so we sh...

We had a special guest this week! Taylor came and visited for Slater's all day trip and then came back to record an episode with us. He started in Southern California, then Hawaii and then San Juan Islands. We chatted with him about his experience and how he got his start. He is headed back to Maui next week! Eric, Slater and Katlyn had an incredible experience earlier this week with humpbacks dur...