Megafauna Science
Featured
In grade 9 biology, I wrote a research report on the behaviour of albatross – a bird I had never heard of before but was intrigued by because they looked like my pet ducks. I was absolutely blown away by them! I headed off to the big smoke (Brisbane) to study environmental science when I was 17. After a lot of study, some persistent nagging, and with bucket-loads of guidance and support from great scientists and people, I am now coming to the end of my PhD studying a threatened Australian species, the shy albatross.
Research has shown that dolphins exhibit a variety of social behaviours within their pods, although their communication systems have been studied extensively, there is still much to learn. Meet Emma Chereskin, marine mammal scientist completing her Masters degree at the University of Bristol who studies sociality and vocal communication in Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins.
Meet Dr Joanna Alfaro Shigueto, director and co-founder of ProDelphinus, a non-profit organisation in Peru that works with fishing communities, researchers and the government to protect sea turtles and marine fauna to reduce by-catch. She is an incredible scientist and mother of two (Kenzo and Jake) who has worked in marine conservation in South America for over 25 years!
I think it is what I liked the most about being a whale watching guide. Being directly on the frontline between science and ‘real life’.”
My last two summers were spent where I like to be the most - by the ocean, or even better, on the ocean.
Lisa Steiner is the marine biologist for Whale Watch Azores, and has been since 1988! WOS Editor, Dana Tricarico dives into what brought Steiner to this archipelago, and what she has learned in the field of marine mammal science along the way.
In a region known as Macaronesia, located in an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean, lies an Island named Madeira. Geographically positioned in the African Tectonic Plate, the waters are frequently inhabited by up to 29 species of cetaceans, equating to roughly 33 % of globally known species. The preservation of this diversity is therefore imperative, considering fatalities of marine mammals elsewhere.
Bottlenose dolphins are the poster child of behavioural research; they’re a behaviourally complex species, making them very similar to humans in a lot of ways, but found all over the world in shallow coastal areas, where they’re accessible to researchers
Meet Lucie, a passionate marine megafauna ambassador and read about her journey to pursue her dreams.
Lets be honest, we all wish we could speak to whales like Dory in Finding Nemo, but what if instead of speaking to them we listened to them? We had the pleasure of chatting with Yvonne Miles, a Marine Mammal Observer and Passive Acoustic Monitoring expert from Hervey Bay in Australia.