Episodes
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Missing episodes?
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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.
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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 simple as it was 50 years ago.
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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 sperm whales, and killer whales. Reproduction and growth of captive cetaceans is another focus of his study as well as the biology of the bottlenose dolphin in the Indian River Lagoon, Florida.
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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 Department of Animal Behavior at the American Museum of Natural History.
He was one of the world’s leading authorities on fish sounds and is said to be one of the founding individuals of the marine bioacoustics field. He did important studies of the mechanisms of fish sound production and acoustic communication. He did actually co-author one paper on dolphins.
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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 endangered and threatened marine mammal species.
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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.
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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 what is now called clicker training, which is used by some trainers as a positive and humane way to work with animals.
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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 aquaticmammalsjournal.org
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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 exercise physiology of marine mammals and other aquatic vertebrates including marine birds, particularly the emperor penguin.
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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.
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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.
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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 large whale species, Dr. Holt provided scientific support to numerous non-governmental organizations that were working to stem the tide of whale kills and forcing whaling nations to only hunt in their own economic zones. He used his scientific, communication, and diplomatic skills to turn the IWC from pro-hunting to a conservation body, a process that took decades of dedication.
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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 granted me one and a half hours, out of his still-busy schedule, for a video interview. We are assisted with the interview by his friend Dr. Peter Lamb.
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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.
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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 listen to what Sam had to say about his career.
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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".
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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 people how to respect animals and the environment. In this podcast are a few soundbites from a brilliant decades long career ... Enjoy!
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