Casey and the Walruses

I recently realized that my blog's title is a little outdated, though I suppose my scope was a little narrow to begin with.  Casey and the Marine Mammals doesn't have the same ring to it.  Casey and the Marine Ecological Studies?  I don't think so.  The URL would have been much too long.

It bears mentioning at this point that my whale days are not quite over, as I am still working on publishing my manuscript from my MS thesis.  It has been a long and arduous process, which has definitely motivated me to write my PhD chapters in manuscript form.  I never would have guessed it would be so difficult to pare a thesis chapter down into a clear, succinct paper.  In light of these difficulties, I am happy to announce that a little side-project that developed in conjunction with my master's project was recently published in Marine Mammal Science:

Check it out here!

Thanks to Liz Vu and all our awesome collaborators for getting that one to press.  It's fun when science works the way it's supposed to.  In celebration, here's a picture of some humpbacks enjoying the crystal clear tropical waters of Hawaii.

I wish I could say I was doing the same, but I am definitely not.  Still dark and cold here in Fairbanks, but after today it will only be getting brighter!  Happy winter solstice everyone!

The Land (Sea?) of Plenty

Last May (2012) we had nice period of strong northerly winds, triggering a strong episode of coastal upwelling.  The result was plentiful nutrients and a lot of food to be found throughout the bay.  Surface swarms of krill were plentiful, and the whales were happy.  Below are some photos of humpbacks enjoying the plentiful food, as they perform feeding lunges through surface swarms of krill.  Enjoy!

A pair of whales lunge feeding side by side

You can see all of the krill jumping in an effort to avoid being eaten

A good view of the baleen (the brown bristly material) on the upper jaw

A few photos from the field

Shining flukes on a flat day on Monterey Bay

A very nice fluke shot (note the distinctive damage to the right side of the trailing edge)

Getting playful: pectoral (pec) fin slapping take one

Pec slapping take two