The Whales-online Podcast

Dear whales-online site visitors and podcast audience, We need to extend our period of being offline for four more weeks. We hope that the inconvenience will be minimal, and trust that you will bear with us through this period. The next new podcast episode will be E37. We are now planning to post this on Friday 18th April. Thank you for your continued support and encouragement. See you on the other side! Geoff and Margi

This week we speak with Dr Mike Bossley, a research scientist, educator, activist and academic, who has fused his many years of experience into a principled position of gently learning and leading by example. Mike’s current work is a long term behavioral study of a small community of bottlenose dolphins in the Port River, South Australia, where he learns as much about the dolphins as he does from the dolphins, providing insight into dolphin communities and our responsibly to interact with these animals with respect.

This week we speak with Dr Regina Asmutis-Silvia, Senior Biologist for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society in North America. Picking up on a recurrent theme, Regina is another research scientist, educator, and activist of note. Her work on safeguarding a future for whales off the east coast of the United States addresses entanglement in fishing gear through to whales being hit by ships and boats in the region. She speaks to the diversity of skills needed in conservation today – from being a scientist immersed in files and data through to a negotiator for the interests of the animals in political process.

This week we speak again with Courtney Vail, who is the Caribbean Programme Leader for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. We didn’t feel like we had exhausted the dimensions of Courtney’s philosophy in our last interview with her. So, we have interviewed her again, but this time about the role of education in delivering conservation. Courtney takes us on a challenging journey to stop the drive hunt, capture and slaughter of pods, for the selection of a few dolphins for the captivity industry around the world. She demonstrates how this information can be made public, without extinguishing hope and optimism, but instead instilling personal action.

This week we speak with Erich Hoyt an author, conservationist, scientist and wise elder for many in the conservation world. Uniquely blending conservation with writing, Erich is an award-winning author, with 15 books and hundreds of magazine articles on whales, dolphins, as well as ants, insects, wild plants and other subjects under his belt. He is a long-time member of many the Writers' Societies and Guilds as well as Scientific bodies focusing on Marine Mammals. Erich directs the first orca study in Kamchatka, and we explore the journey that lead him to a long term study of these animals which has uncovered some interesting knowledge about orca behavior, their relationships and the sophistication of their culture.

This week we speak with Mike Donoghue, Senior International Relations Officer with New Zealand’s Department of Conservation. Mike has contributed decades of commitment to Pacific whale conservation as both a whale biologist and government official. Mike’s contribution and commitment to conservation of whales in this region is significant, but he has never lost his ability to speak to us all at the level that connects. In this interview we were pleased to have Mike explain the ‘art’ of whale field research and the collection of key data – tail flukes, genetic material and recordings of humpback whale song – it is rare to have such research explained in such an accessible way. It is clear throughout that Mike retains reverence for his subject.

This week we speak with Erich Hoyt, an author, conservationist and scientist who has a unique gift of blending conservation with compelling writing. We sought Erich’s insights about the development of protected area design for whales, dolphins and porpoises and to discuss his important book Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises. Erich’s work has brought the value of whales, dolphins and porpoises as a focus for protected area design to the fore and made the science of this area accessible to governments and park managers around the world. His work has most importantly made us all aware that whales, dolphins and porpoises need their homes, and they need these areas to be safe harbors in what is an increasingly dangerous and degraded ocean.

This week we speak with Nicola Beynon, the Wildlife and Habitat Program Manager for Humane Society International in Australia. The Humane Society is a global organisation who is at the forefront of setting the agenda for international and domestic conservation policies in many parts of the world. As a global organisation they have specialized in using law to protect wildlife. The most recent action they are involved in is a world first court case to force the Australian Government to face down Japan’s so-called scientific whaling programme in the Australian Whale Sanctuary in the Southern Ocean - a hunt that will be escalating to over 1000 whales in this next year. The Humane Society is pushing Australia to do something serious. Something that will stop the hunt.

This week we speak with Marc Bekoff, Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado and Fellow of the Animal Behavior Society, about his new book Animals Matter and his ideas about treating animals and the environment more humanely and compassionately. Marc’s book considers the full spectrum of topics relating to animals in the human world including animal sentience and animal emotions. Marc explains to whales-online that the difference between humans and non-humans animals are differences in degree, rather than difference in kind, and that it is good science to say that animals experience emotions. He shares some important insights about the need for human society to learn too co-exist with animals, and we should learn to adapt our lives to theirs rather than always asking them to adapt to their lives to us. Photo credit: Marc and his friend, Willie. Photographer Jan Nystrom.

This week we speak with Dr Lori Marino, Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology at Emery University in the United States, about her fascinating research into intelligence in dolphins. The implications of her important and ground-breaking research are huge and confirm that dolphins are highly intelligent, highly social and highly complex animals with self awareness, societies and cultural traditions and that we humans must learn to treat with respect and sensitivity. Indeed to quote Lori “the primate way is not the only way to be intelligent!” Photo credit: Lori Marino with one of her research subjects examining himself in the mirror. Wildlife Conservation Society

This week whales-online speaks with Wally Franklin, Director and Co-Founder, with Trish Franklin, of the Oceania Project and PhD Candidate at Southern Cross University studying humpback whales. Trish and Wally have been studying a population of humpbacks in Harvey Bay, on the east coast of Australia, since 1989. This significant and long term study is now providing some important insights and clues into the social structure of humpback whales in this particular area of the world. Amazingly they are now able to identify at least 2500 individuals from a total population of 10,000 whales. Photo credit: Trish and Wally, Founders of The Oceania Project aboard Karma in 1997

This week we speak with Dr Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara, Chair of the Scientific Committee of ACCOBAMS about the progress this important agreement is making. ACCOBAMS is an intergovernmental agreement that aims to protect whales and dolphins in the Mediterranean and Black Sea from a range of threats including bycatch, chemical and noise pollution and to also take protective measures like securing important habitat for the animals. But, much more political momentum needs to be created to really ensure that the whales and dolphins of this region notice a change. This is a job for civil society – because without public will there will be no political will and fine and progressive instruments like ACCOBAMS could be lost to us.

This week whales-online brings you an interview with Chris Butler-Stroud, CEO of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) about the organisations philosophical thinking about the protection of whales and dolphins around the world. Characteristically Chris articulates the heart of the matter – delving into what motivates us to work towards protecting these animals and reminds us all to be true to why we believe what we believe and that it is appropriate to be concerned, and have compassion, for the welfare of the individual – indeed that we need to recognize theses animals intrinsic right to life, freedom and their habitat.

This week whales-online brings you an interview with Dr Simon Jarman, a Research Scientist with the Australian Antarctic Division, part of the Australian Department of Environment and Water Resources. Australia invests heavily in whale conservation research in the Southern Ocean through their Centre for Applied Marine Mammal Science, otherwise known as ACAMMS, and Australia’s policy against commercial whaling is well known internationally. So, with the departure of the Japanese whaling fleet for the southern ocean - an annual trip of the Japanese Scientific Whaling programme to hunt around 1000 minke, fin and now also humpback whales, we thought a more positive look on an alternate way might be some salve. Simon’s interview reveals that there is indeed another way. Good science can be done without killing whales. Photo credit: Courtesy Australian Antarctic Division © Commonwealth of Australia 2006

For this special episode whales -online brings you an with Philippa Brakes, Senior Biologist with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. Both Philippa and WDCS have been involved in the campaign to stop whaling for a considerable amount of time. In speaking with Philippa it seems clear that Japan’s scientific whaling hunt is a misuse the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling and she reveals an interesting insight into the true commercial nature of this hunt. This isn’t about science – it is about making money, but even that isn’t being done very well. Photo credit: Mark Simmonds, Philippa Brakes and Jo Clark at IWC in 2006. Photographer: WDCS