Past Speakers
Wednesday, Sept 9, 2026, 7:00 PM PDT – In person at PLNU and on Zoom
Speaker: Dr. Ted Cheeseman
North Pacific humpback whale conservation science through the stories of five whales with Happywhale
Ted will explore the life histories of five individual humpback whales including Big Mama and her family of the Salish Sea, Fran and her daughter of California, and Old Timer of Alaska, to illustrate modern marine conservation science. These stories show how great an impact every contributor to citizen science has in helping us understand and protect great whales and our oceans, while revealing insights into their unique culture and biology.
Description: Dr. Ted Cheeseman is a research fellow at the University of California Santa Cruz and co-founder and director of Happywhale, a research collaboration and citizen science platform that uses AI-powered image recognition to track individual whales globally. He completed his PhD in Marine Science at Southern Cross University, Australia, where his widely collaborative work on North Pacific humpback whale populations leveraged AI technology to identify nearly every living whale in the region—revealing that one-third of Hawaiʻi’s humpback population was lost following a three-year marine heatwave. In 2026, Happywhale won the UN’s AI for Good Impact Award, recognizing outstanding an contribution to the planet and society.
Born into a family of biologists and expedition leaders, Ted led Antarctic expeditions for 30 years before pivoting to marine science. His research has been published in over 50 peer-reviewed papers, and he has contributed to international collaborations spanning all the world’s oceans. Through Happywhale, he aims to open a door into understanding the ocean realm by making marine science accessible, fun, and a thousand times more efficient than analog techniques of old. When not studying whales, Ted is happiest anywhere wild, especially in surf, snow, and mountains.
Wednesday, August 12, 2026, 7:00 PM PDT
Vocal Matching and Changes in Beluga Vocalizations with and without Human-generated Signals
Speaker: Alexa Manley
Description: Alexa earned her Bachelor of Science in Biology with a concentration in Marine Science from the University of Tampa and completed her master’s degree in Environmental and Ocean Sciences at the University of San Diego. Her thesis research focused on beluga whale communication and the contexts surrounding their vocal behaviors.
July 8, 2026
Sea Turtles of San Diego
Description:
Sheila Madrak is a conservation ecologist whose primary research is focused on marine turtle movement and behavior. For the last 17 years, she has been part of a NOAA collaborative team that has studied East Pacific green turtles (Chelonia mydas) in San Diego Bay. Sheila completed her doctoral degree in 2016 through the Joint Doctoral Program in Ecology at San Diego State University and the University of California, Davis. Her dissertation was entitled, “ Influence of Temperature on Habitat Use by East Pacific Green Turtles
(Chelonia mydas) in an Urbanized Environment.”
https://sandiegoscubaguide.com/2020/03/19/where-to-find-green-sea-turtles-in-san-diego
The Speaker
Sheila completed her Bachelor of Science in Animal Science at the University of Vermont and her Master of Science in the Biological Sciences at Florida Atlantic University. She has worked for the United States Geological Survey, the City of San Diego, AECOM, and as a professor of biology for San Diego Miramar College. As of June 2026, she is the Chief Research and Conservation Officer for the world-renowned Cayman Turtle Conservation and Education Centre in West Bay, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.
June 10, 2026
Flashing Red Lights for a Black and White Porpoise: Dall’s Porpoise Declines Along the West Coast of North America
Description:
Dall’s porpoise is a cetacean you won’t forget if you’ve ever seen them – they are powerful, fast swimmers that rip so rapidly across the surface they create a characteristic spray known as a “rooster tail” – a thrilling display. Recently, there has been concern about the apparent decreasing numbers of Dall’s porpoise in the eastern North Pacific (ENP). In 2025, ACS awarded a research grant to Dr. Thomas Jefferson to address the concerns and evaluate available evidence for population declines. Please join us to hear the results of his study, evidence of the decline along the west coast, and suggested next steps for our understanding of threats to the Dall’s porpoise population.
Wednesday, June 10, 2026 at 7:00 pm
What might we have here?
The Speaker
Dr. Thomas A. Jefferson has been studying marine mammals since 1983, when he was an undergraduate at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His Master’s degree is from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, and his Ph.D. is from Texas A&M University. Tom is Director of Clymene Enterprises and of VIVA Vaquita, where his main interests are the development of marine mammal identification aids, and investigating the systematics and population ecology of the more poorly-known species of dolphins and porpoises. Most of his work has been related to conservation and management of marine mammals threatened by human activities. He has published over 200 books and papers on marine mammals.
May 18, 2025 Speaker at PLNU – Kiku Loomis – Moby Pic about Sperm Whales
Kiku Loomis is a business and sustainability strategist with over two decades of experience guiding global organizations in implementing responsible practices that benefit business, the environment, and communities. She has held leadership roles across nonprofit and corporate sectors, consistently driving innovation and impact in sustainability. She holds an MBA from INSEAD and a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, and recently earned a Master of Marine Biodiversity and Conservation from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
As threats to ocean ecosystems grow, Kiku has shifted her focus to marine conservation, with a particular interest in how marine science and emerging technologies can inform decision-makers and local stakeholders toward more sustainable policies and practices. Her capstone project, “Moby Pic: Tails of the Deep: A Photo-ID Catalog of Sperm Whales of the Northeast Pacific,” compiles over 30 years of unpublished NOAA data into the first publicly available photo-ID catalog of this enigmatic deep-ocean species (Loomis et al., in press). She is also the author of Getting Started with Flukebook and Happywhale: An Onboarding Guide for Cetacean Research Scientists.
- Moby Pic: Building a Sperm Whale Census One Fluke at a Time
Surprisingly little is known about the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), the world’s largest apex predator. Yet these deep-diving ocean giants are ever-present in the deep waters of the Pacific, including off the coast of California. Creatures of remarkable extremes, sperm whales have the largest brain of any animal, dive to depths of up to 3,000 meters, can hold their breath for as long as two hours, and routinely travel thousands of miles in pursuit of prey. They are highly social, possess complex communication systems, and have even been shown to exhibit culture.
This talk explores the biology and ecology of sperm whales, the history of whaling—including intensive hunts in recent centuries—and what we know about their presence in our region today. It will introduce the science of photo-identification (photo-ID) and highlight emerging findings from NOAA research and citizen science contributions from naturalists and whale-watching operators along the coast.
Link to the YouTube on our Channel – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeKuyG_OnP8&t=15s