Upcoming Speakers and Events
April 9, 2025, from 6:30pm-8pm
Join us onboard the Legacy and via Zoom
Speaker Series Program
with guest speakers
Drs. Barbara Taylor and Jay Barlow
About the Event
Dr. Barbara Taylor - “Changing Human Behavior: Cases from Around the Globe Reveal the Need to Expand Conservation Expertise”
Dr. Jay Barlow - “Listening to beaked whales: What can they tell us about their behavior, distribution and abundance?”
About the Speakers
Dr. Barbara Taylor has been researching marine mammals for over 40 years. She led the marine mammal genetics group at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California for 15 years and now is retired from federal service but remains an independent scientist. She specializes in working to assess risk of extinction. She was chief scientist together with Dr. Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho on all vaquita surveys, Mexico’s critically endangered endemic porpoise. She chaired the Conservation Committee of the Society for Marine Mammalogy, and serves as the Listing Authority for the Cetacean Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). She co-chaired a workshop on Ex-Situ Options for Cetacean Conservation in 2018 and chaired a 2019 workshop to develop a One Plan Approach for Yangtze finless porpoise. She was awarded the Society for Conservation Biology’s LaRoe award for her outstanding career achievements in translating conservation science into real-world conservation efforts, the American Cetacean Societies lifetime achievement award and was awarded honorary membership in the Society for Marine Mammalogy.
Dr. Jay Barlow is currently a marine mammal researcher at the Marine Mammal Research Institute at Oregon State University. He retired after 42 years at NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California. He received a B.S. in Biology from Arizona State University in 1976 and a PhD in Biological Oceanography from UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1982. His studies of human impacts on marine mammals have included research along the U.S. west coast and in Hawaii, Mexico, Colombia, Central America, Antarctica and China. He has authored or co-authored 120 professional papers and 75 technical reports. He is a member of IUCN’s Cetacean Specialist Group and Mexico’s vaquita recovery team. Dr. Barlow received the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Gold and Silver Medals for his work and is a recent finalist for a Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal. His research interests include abundance estimation and trend monitoring using visual and acoustic methods, stock assessment, population modeling, cetacean acoustic behavior and habitat modeling. His current work focuses on the use of passive acoustic methods to study the distribution and estimate abundance the abundance of beaked whales.
March 12, 2025, from 6:30pm-8pm
Join us onboard the Legacy and via Zoom
Speaker Series Program
with guest speaker
Dr. Hendrik Nollens
About the Event
“Developing remotely collected health indicators for the endangered southern resident killer whales”
About the Speaker
Dr Hendrik Nollens is the Vice President of Wildlife Health of the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. In this role, he leads the nutrition and veterinary clinical, research and diagnostic teams of the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.
Dr Nollens received his veterinary degree from the University of Gent in Belgium, a master’s degree in marine biology from the University of Otago, New Zealand, and a PhD in infectious diseases of marine mammals from the University of Florida. Dr Nollens gained much of his clinical experience during his time as a clinical veterinarian at SeaWorld San Diego. He has since served as the Vice President of Conservation Medicine and Science of the Pacific Marine Mammal Center. He is a courtesy Clinical Assistant Professor in marine mammal medicine at the University of Florida. He has authored or co-authored over 60 peer-reviewed scientific papers on various topics of marine mammal virology, immunology, physiology and medicine. He is a member of the Society for Marine Mammalogy, the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians, and the Wildlife Disease Association. He is the former President of the International Association for Aquatic Animal Medicine and the former vice chair of the NOAA Working Group for Marine Mammal Unusual Mortality Events.
February 12, 2025, from 7pm-8pm
Join us via Zoom
Speaker Series Program
with guest speaker
Sabena Siddiqui
About the Event
“A snapshot of the International Whaling Commission in the modern era”
About the Speaker
Sabena’s experience in both nonprofit leadership and research reflects her passion for cetacean conservation. She has over a decade of experience as a board member of the ACS and representative of the organization at the International Whaling Commission (IWC). At IWC meetings she collaborates with a coalition of international NGOs dedicated to cetacean welfare and conservation. She is also pursuing her PhD at Oregon State University with a focus on same-sex behavior in whales and dolphins. Previously she earned her master’s degree at the University of Hawaii studying humpback whale communication. Her contributions to various marine mammal research projects have taken her to Egypt, The Bahamas, Hawaii, Florida and the North Atlantic.
About Presentation
A snapshot of the International Whaling Commission in the modern era
Whaling is often viewed in two major segments. The period before the 1986 global moratorium on whaling and after. Large-scale whale hunts have largely decreased around the world. This change has led to our modern age being one that is ‘post-whaling’. Do we truly live in a post-whaling era? Some large whale populations are making recoveries now that the hunts have greatly reduced, yet whales still aren’t safe from a wide array of threats ranging from plastic pollution to ship strikes. The 69th meeting of the International Whaling Commission held in Lima, Peru will be used as a roadmap laying out the sociopolitical factors that drive this organization. Importantly, these insights will indicate what lies ahead for the whales of the world.
September 11, 2024 7pm via Zoom and the Legacy
Dr. Audra Ames
About the Speaker
Dr. Audra Ames is a bio acoustician studying the communication and echolocation systems of toothed whales. She is a postdoctoral research associate with the Animal Behavior and Senses Lab at Hubbs SeaWorld Research Institute (San Diego, CA). Dr. Ames was a graduate student of the Marine Mammal Behavior and Cognition Lab at the University of Southern Mississippi, where she completed her Master's study of signature whistle development of a bottlenose dolphin calf in response to production of signature whistles from the calf's social group surrounding the calf's birth. She was recruited to study beluga vocal development at Oceanografic in Valencia, Spain as her PhD thesis following completion of her Master's thesis in 2016. The beluga vocal repertoire became Dr. Ames' primary focus until the completion of her PhD in 2019, when she pivoted her experience to studying additional species. She remained as a researcher at Oceanográfic (Spain) until December 2023, when she joined the team at Hubbs. Currently, her studies are focused on the communication sounds of belugas, narwhals, bottlenose dolphins, and Risso's dolphins. She is exploring the unique sounds individuals of these species produce to determine how they are produced and processed, if and how they are affected by human-made disturbances, and if they can be used for monitoring purposes.
About the Presentation
Narwhal and Beluga Whales
Information About Attending In Person Aboard the Legacy
Before the presentation, join us for Happy Hour aboard the Legacy at 6:30 PM. You can enjoy snacks for $3, as well as a selection of beer, wine, and canned cocktails priced between $5 and $9.
Location wise, we'll be at the Legacy Whale Watch (sdwhale.com) 1717 Quivira Rd, San Diego, CA 92109, behind the Seaforth Sportsfishing building. Be sure to arrive early because we have someone waiting at the dock gate to let you through.
Parking will be available at 1717 Quivira Rd. (Seaforth Sportsfishing parking lot) or out on 'Quivira Rd where designated. Pleasenote that the neighboring businesses on either side of the Legacy parking lot are towing aggressively, so don't park in Seaforth Boat Rentals, Seaforth Marina, Marina Village parking lots, or risk being towed. Parts of their parking lot are marked for permit parking, so be sure to look for those posts.