Presentation on Marine Mammal Acoustics

Whales, probably vocalizing.\Photo courtesy of NOAA.

The Marine Mammal Institute at the Hatfield Marine Science Center is interviewing candidates for an open assistant professor in cetacean biology.  This gives the public an opportunity to learn about current research on marine mammals, because each of the four candidates will give a talk on their research activity, open online to the public at no cost.

Next up is Kate Stafford, speaking on “Eavesdropping on the ocean: listening to marine mammals in a changing world” on Thursday, June 25, 10 a.m.

Dr. Stafford’s research focuses on using passive acoustic monitoring to examine migratory movements, geographic variation and physical drivers of marine mammals, particularly large whales. She has worked all over the world from the tropics to the poles, and is fortunate enough to have seen (and recorded) blue whales in every ocean in which they occur.  Her current research focuses on the acoustic behavior of bowhead whales and the changing acoustic environment of the Arctic and how changes, from sea ice declines to increasing industrial human use, may be influencing subarctic and Arctic marine mammals. She is currently a Senior Principal Oceanographer at the Applied Physics Lab and affiliate Associate Professor in the School of Oceanography at the University of Washington in Seattle, with degrees in French Literature and Biology from the University of California at Santa Cruz and Wildlife Science (MS) and Oceanography (PhD) from Oregon State University. Before going to graduate school, she lived as a Fulbright scholar for a year in Paris. Kate’s research has been featured, among others, the New York Times Scientist at Work blog, The Planet magazine, Science Friday, TED, and in Highlights for Children magazine. She has collaborated with artists around the world, providing sounds for multimedia art exhibits.

Attend the talk virtually via Zoom: oregonstate.zoom.us/j/94299492173