This week we checked in on the North Atlantic Right Whale breeding season. Meet the moms for this season and a little about their history!

There are multiple breeding areas off the Western North Pacific Ocean where humpback whales go to breed in the winter. We covered a recent paper that covers the use of Japanese waters by humpbacks in more detail.

We were so excited to talk to Belén for this episode about her work in Iceland. Belén is a marine biologist, wildlife guide, and sailor who works in the whale watching industry and runs a non profit focused on ocean conservation and education. She has also been an integral part of establishing the first Hope Spot in Iceland.

Slater is back from his safari trip to Kenya! After talking about whale sightings and safari sightings we chat about how hippos are indeed distant cousins of whales, how scientists figured that out, and what adaptations hippos and whales have to live their semi aquatic and marine lives.

This week Katlyn takes us through some information about humpback whale migration patterns in the Southern Hemisphere. After Slater came back from Tonga last summer we have been wanting to learn more about how the whales use Antarctica and travel between the feeding and breeding grounds. 

Katlyn also added in a little snippet of whale song from Maui this season for you to enjoy during the sightings report.

Happy New Year!

Several birthing events for large whales in the North Pacific have been documented this winter. So we did a recap of the latest events in Mexico and California. We also covered a paper that gathered up reports over the past few decades of humpback whale births around the world.

This is our last episode of 2022. We talked through an early season update for Maui with some data from NOAA, observations on the water, and some news updates on Moon the humpback whale.

This week we had guest Andy Rogan on from Ocean Alliance. Andy is the Science Manager for the Ocean Alliance SnotBot program. We chatted about new technologies in whale research, drones and of course whale snot!

Whale sightings have still been going strong as whales are working their way South for winter season in the Northern Hemisphere. Katlyn took a trip to New York last week to be a part of the Safina Center annual gala event. We are so grateful to them for supporting the podcast this year. While she was there she went whale watching out of Brooklyn, so we took a little time to learn more about the whales that use the New York Bight.