The University of St Andrews is currently hosting the 6th International Statistical Ecology Conference and our SMRU Consulting North America colleague and senior statistician Ruth Joy is in town to present. […]
Yukusam is the male sperm whale named after an island to the northeast of Vancouver Island where he was first sighted in February. Now he has moved south and was spotted in the San Juan Islands on March 31st, the first ever sighting of this animal in Washington Inland waters! Generally a deep ocean species, the [...]
On Monday morning 4 September, we got word that the Southern Resident killer whales were inbound from the Pacific Ocean. It had been over a month since members of this endangered killer whale population had been seen in the Salish Sea. […]
This week we saw some really uplifting news in the whale world. The US government announced that they were removing almost all of the world’s humpback whale populations from the endangered species list. To be precise NOAA Fisheries stated in a press release on September 6th that humpback whales in 9 of 14 newly identified distinct populations [...]
We are excited to hear that the SCANS III surveys have begun! […]
A new paper has shown examples of cetacean skulls with fractured ear bones and hypothesises what may have caused them… […]
Whale, dolphin, and porpoise populations in the Salish Sea face a variety of threats including acoustic disturbance, physical disruption, contaminants, and reduced prey availability. In particular, the endangered population of Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKWs) continues to struggle as a result of ocean pollution, underwater noise, and food availability. A ten-year NOAA study found that SRKWs [...]
