April 20, 2023

Our team has just finished an incredible field season in the Antarctic. We collected several hundred biopsies of whale tissue, paired many of these with measurable images of body condition using drones, placed tags on several animals, and conducted exposure experiments for a new study on the impacts of tourism on whale behavior. A film team from NowThis Earth joined one of our teams on an Intrepid Travel ship to tell our story.

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November 3, 2022

In an exciting partnership with the Earth Species Project, we're working on our ability to understand other species, like whales. There could be a number of benefits, and challenges, involved with decoding the language of other animals. Check out this panel discussion led by Aza Raskin from the World Economic Forum held in San Francisco on October 25, 2022.

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Researchers didn't even know Antarctic minke whales existed until the 1990s. Now, for the first time ever, our team offers an unprecedented opportunity to listen to the vocalizations of one of the smallest baleen whale species. You can listen to the recordings of four different calls that have been identified here, and read more about the technology used to eavesdrop on these animals.

The COVID-19 anthropause has prompted some researchers to quickly modify existing studies. One researcher, Dr. Ari Friedlaender at UC Santa Cruz,  realized the pandemic offered an unprecedented opportunity to study the effects reduced boat traffic and accompanied noise, which can stress marine life, may have on whales in Monterey Bay. Read the full article here.

Scientists have found that studying high-resolution images of whales from space is a feasible way to estimate their populations. A team, led by British Antarctic Survey (BAS; press release here), compared satellite images to data collected from traditional ship-based surveys.  This study is a big step towards developing a cost-effective method to study whales in remote and inaccessible places. Check out the full scientific article published in Scientific Reports here.

Nature’s most extreme animal has an equally extreme circulatory system, researchers found. Read the full New York Times article here.

For the first time, scientists have recorded the heart rate of a blue whale, uncovering new information about the biology of the world's largest mammal The full article can be found on CNN online here.

Take a look at just a few of WWF's favorite photographs from 2018, including an Antarctic collaboration between WWF and the Friedlaender BTBEL lab back in Santa Cruz. The full article can be found on WWF online here.

Check out the new report put together by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in collaboration with PI Dr. Ari Friedlaender and Ph.D. student Michele Modest which talks about the challenges that Antarctic whales face today. For the full report, click here.

"As the Antarctic Peninsula heats up, the rules of life there are being ripped apart. Alarmed scientists aren’t sure what all the change means for the future." Check out this wonderful online article through National Geographic featuring work by Dr. Friedlaender and his lab at UCSC.

In a rare piece of good news for whales, featuring work by Ph.D. student Logan Pallin,  humpbacks who live and breed in the southern oceans near Antarctica appear to be making a comeback, with females in recent years having a high pregnancy rate and giving birth to more calves. Find the full New York Times piece here. Find the full text of the scientific article here.