Happy Mother’s Day, from SR3!
Learn more about a very devoted mother: the Giant Pacific Octopus

Dr. Fearnbach sent one last update from Piedras Blancas lighthouse before heading up to the San Juan Islands!

Mid-project update from Dr. Fearnbach and colleagues and their gray whale health assessment project off Piedras Blancas Lighthouse near Big Sur, CA.

SR3’s Dr. Holly Fearnbach is heading back into the field. This time she is joining colleagues from NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) at the Piedras Blancas Lighthouse in central California during their annual northbound gray whale census.

Here is an infographic celebrating National Dolphin Day in the Pacific Northwest!

Dr. Holly Fearnbach and colleagues from Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC/NOAA) and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) recently finished a second year of a study to assess the health of North Atlantic Right whales using an unmanned aircraft in Cape Cod Bay.

Fourth ever humpback whale strands in Seattle area… SR3 is doing wildlife CSI to understand why! Early last week a humpback whale was reported deceased on Anderson Island and multiple agencies including SR3, Cascadia Research Collective (CRC), WDFW, and the MaST Center came together to perform a necropsy to determine the cause of death.

Dr. Holly Fearnbach, SR3’s Marine Mammal Research Director is out in the field again in Cape Cod, Massachusetts studying large whale health. Together with colleagues Dr. John Durban (NOAA), Drs. Michael Moore, Amy Apprill and Carolyn Miller (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution). The team are using unmanned hexacopter to assess the health of the endangered population of North Atlantic right whales, which are subject to a number of anthropogenic threats.

Necropsy results are in from the steller sea lion that Feiro Marine Life Center, NOAA, WDFW, and SR3 responded to this past January in Port Angeles, WA. Among the results is a finding that is a first for steller sea lions!

Dr. Holly Fearnbach, SR3’s Marine Mammal Research Director, and her colleagues John Durban (NOAA) and Leigh Hickmott (Open Ocean Consulting) completed their research efforts on whale health and ecology in Antarctica last week. Here are their final stats!