Humpback Whale in the Salish Sea. Photo courtesy of Joe Gaydos
Lecture with Dr. Jeremy Goldbogen
Most people think of killer whales when they think of the Salish Sea, but in the early 1900’s humpback whales were one of the most common large whales seen in the region. Whalers killed them off by the 1950’s and erased them from most people’s memories. We began seeing humpback whales again in the San Juan Islands late in the 1980’s, and the population is now rebounding.
On Tuesday, January 11th at 7:00 pm Dr. Jeremy Goldbogen of Cascadia Research will give a presentation on humpback whales that will endear you to this amazing whale and will make you cheer their recovery. In a feat that makes Olympic distance runners seem like toddlers, humpback whales migrate every six months between their summering grounds in the North Pacific and their wintering grounds in Hawaii or Southern Mexico. That’s quite a journey, even for a whale that is 1.5 times as long as a school bus. Dr. Goldbogen will entertain you with stories about the singing of male humpbacks, their interesting feeding behaviors and new findings on these amazing whales that, like killer whales, can be identified individually.
Jeremy Goldbogen, a whale researcher at Cascadia Research Collective in Olympia, was a 2010 Scripps Postdoctoral Research Fellow in marine biology. He received a B.S. and Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Texas at Austin and the University of British Columbia, respectively.
The 2010/11 Marine Science Lecture Series was created to inspire the general public and to highlight the amazing fish and wildlife of our region. Lectures are free. Please park in the upper parking lot at Camp Orkila. Shuttle service from the parking lot to the talk is available before and after the lecture.
The lecture Series is presented by program partners The SeaDoc Society and YMCA Camp Orkila. It has been made possible through generous sponsorship by Tom Averna (Deer Harbor Charters), Eclipse Charters, West Sound Marina and co-sponsorship by Barbara Brown, The Kingfish Inn and Shearwater Kayaks.
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I highly recommend Dr. Goldbogen lectures. He is a young dynamic researcher and speaker. And his study subject, the humpback whale, is almost as charismatic as our orca whales. Thank you SeaDoc Society – keep up the good work!
Martine
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