Webinar Salmon & Orcas: The Stories of Science with NOAA Fisheries & Lynda Mapes
This webinar is presented by NOAA’s Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary and NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region and Northwest Fisheries Science Center
The new book ORCA: Shared Waters, Shared Home, due out in June 2021, describes how NOAA Fisheries scientists seek to unravel connections between endangered Southern Resident killer whales, threatened Puget Sound Chinook salmon, and the rest of the marine ecosystem. Hear from those scientists and an award-winning journalist who covers them as they examine the smallest organisms in the ocean, looking for clues to understanding salmon survival. Hear also from the biologists who have recently identified the sources of Southern Resident prey across the West Coast. Together they will tell the stories of salmon survival and the native Northwest habitat our salmon and steelhead depend on—and that we can all help restore.
Lynda Mapes is a Seattle Times reporter and author of the new book, ORCA: Shared Waters, Shared Home. Lynda's series, Hostile Waters: Orcas in Peril told the stories of the Southern Residents and threats to their survival. Mapes and her colleagues shared the 2019 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Gold Award for the series.
Lynne Barre is the Recovery Coordinator for the Southern Resident killer whales and Branch Chief of NOAA Fisheries Protected Resources Division in Seattle. She has worked on Southern Resident killer whale recovery since 2003, and has led the development of a proposal to protect critical habitat for the whales and an Action Plan for their recovery.
Brian Burke leads the Ocean Ecology Team at NOAA's Northwest Fisheries Science Center. He focuses on how ocean conditions and other factors affect the habitat and survival of Pacific Chinook and other salmon and steelhead. He was chief scientist of a NOAA research voyage off the Northwest Coast that Lynda Mapes joined and reported on in 2019.
Brad Hanson is a wildlife biologist and ecologist with NOAA's Northwest Fisheries Science Center studying foraging and habitat use of Southern Resident killer whales. He leads the Science Center’s research on Southern Residents and recently published new research on Southern Resident prey.
Marla Holt is a Research Wildlife Biologist at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center, focusing on acoustics. She has led research using digital acoustic recording tags, temporarily affixed to whales with suction cups, to understand their behavior and the underwater soundscape. She is interested in how the whales use sound, especially during foraging, and are affected by sound from other sources.