This special event aired on KGUA 88.3FM, public radio in Gualala CA (on the coast of Mendocino County), is brought to you by Co-Producer & Hosts Scott & Tree Mercer, Mendonoma Whale & Seal Study who began researching marine mammals in 1974. In 1978, he founded New England Whale Watch, co-authored The Great Whale Book in 1982, and taught a marine mammal class for 14 years. Mercer co-founded the Brier Island Ocean Study Research Station and in 2013, the Mendonoma Whale and Seal Study with Tree Mercer to survey marine mammals off the northern Sonoma and southern Mendocino coasts. Before MWSS, Tree recorded seabirds and whale sightings for New England Whale Watch, and taught Biology and Life Science for 35 years on Long Island, NY.

DAY 2:
9:00-10:00 am "Plastics and Other Debris in the Marine Environment" by Jen Kennedy, Executive Director and Co-Founder, Blue Ocean Society.
Jen is co-founder of Blue Ocean Society. She has a Master of Science degree in Resource Administration and Management from the University of New Hampshire and a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Resources from Cornell University.
Although Jen grew up in Rochester, NY, she has always loved the water and being outside, and had an interest in whales from an early age. Jen has worked in an educational capacity over the last 24 years through her work with Blue Ocean Society and aboard various boats, including those run by the Isles of Shoals Steamship Company in Portsmouth, NH, and the Atlantic Fishing and Whale Watching Fleet in Rye, NH. In June 2001, Jen became the survey director for the marine debris monitoring program at Jenness Beach. This evolved into the Blue Ocean Society’s marine debris research and education programs, which include community beach cleanups, an Adopt-a-Beach Program, microplastics research in partnership with NH Sea Grant, and our Skip the Straw project. Jen lives in Eliot, ME with her husband, daughter, and several pets.

blueoceansociety.org
10:00-11:00am Tales of Urban Whales: San Francisco Bay’s Cetacean Restoration by Bill Keener, research biologist with The Marine Mammal Center (TMMC) in Sausalito. Bill began as a volunteer working with marine mammals in the late 1970’s. In 2010, he organized a team of scientists to study the whales, dolphins and porpoises of San Francisco Bay and the Northern California coast. Over the past ten years, he initiated the first Bay Area photo-ID catalogs for humpback whales and bottlenose dolphins. Bill’s most recent scientific publication is on the mating behavior of harbor porpoises in San Francisco Bay.

Bill Keener brings good news in the results of TMMC’s latest studies on humpback whales, bottlenose dolphins and harbor porpoises, and covers environmental change in the San Francisco Bay and marine mammal adaptation in urban waters and along the Northern California coast. He also discusses the lives of the great whales, differences between porpoises and dolphins, where to see them, and what you can do to help in the research.
marinemammalcenter.org

11:00 am-12:00 pm "East and West Coast Offshore Wind" by Michael Stocker of Ocean Conservation Research. Michael is the founding director of Ocean Conservation Research, a scientific research and policy development organization focused on understanding the impacts of, and finding technical and policy solutions to the growing problem of human-generated ocean noise pollution. He is a technical generalist conversant in physics, acoustics, biology, electronics, and cultural history, with a gift for converting complex scientific and technical issues into clear, understandable terms.
His book titled Hear Where We Are: Sound, Ecology, and Sense of Place (Springer 2013) reveals how humans and other animals use sound and sound perception to establish their placement in their environment, and communicate that placement to others.

ocr.org