Dr. John Nightingale was well known for his work at the Vancouver aquarium.  He was CEO of the aquarium for 25 years. More recently, he was known for co-founding the non-profit organization Ocean Wise, which endeavors to protect the world's oceans and address the sustainable seafood issues. Dr. Nightingale spent his time on the planet trying to save life on Earth 

Dr. Yasuhiko Naito is a Japanese scientist who earned his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo and began his career by working with harbor seals in Hokkaido and north in the Sea of Okhotsk in the 1960s and early 1970s.  He pursued the study of marine mammals when he began at the National Institute of Polar Research in 1978 and is probably best known for his use of animal-borne devices, or ABDs as they are known in the bio-logging scientific circles.  

Dr. Lockyer is a British scientist. In this episode she talks about how she entered the marine mammal field, her work in Bio-energetics, working for NAMMCO and much more.

In this episode I talk with Dr. Helene Marsh about her career path, her students, her varied research and marine mammal swim programs in Australia.

Dr. Würsig shares experiences about his work, mentors and general topics from his tenure as a scientist and professor.

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.

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. 

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...

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...

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.

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. 

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...

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

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,...

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.

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.  

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...

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...

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.

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.

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". 

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...

Dr. Kuczaj was a professor at Southern Mississippi University and director of the marine mammal behavior and cognition laboratory. In these excerpts he shares some thoughts and comments about his career and research while in the field.  

We explore a conversation that John Anderson had with Hardy Jones, in 2012.  Hardy planned a career as a journalist after graduating college, but as life would have it, something else caught his interest.  With his college degree in hand and a couple of journalism jobs under his belt, Hardy heard about a pod of spotted dolphins that visited and interacted with a team of treasure salvage divers working in the Bahamas.  Hardy released his first conservation film on dolphins in 1979.  This film,...