Cetacean Research Grants
Every year, the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Cetacean Society awards scientific research grants to researchers or students studying cetaceans.
The American Cetacean Society, Los Angeles Chapter (ACS-LA) is about to begin open applications for its 2024 Research Grant and Travel Award
The American Cetacean Society protects cetaceans and their habitats though conservation, education and research. Working with world-class scientists, ACS-LA funds research projects that address some of the most pressing issues facing cetaceans. ACS-LA is pleased to announce the availability of one research grant, in the amount of $3,000.00, to a qualified researcher whose study focuses on cetaceans along the west-coast of the United States or to researchers & students who are attending an accredited university on the west-coast or are affiliated with a west-coast-based research organization that is studying cetaceans anywhere in the world.
For 2024, with the help of several benevolent supporters, we were able to raise over $3,000 in funds towards our research grants that made it possible to award not one, but two $3,000 research grants!
The John Heyning Research Grant Award
John Heyning was a brilliant and prolific scientist. He was Deputy Director of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, where he built a collection of marine mammal specimens second only to Smithsonian and where he curated the Masters of the Ocean Realm exhibit that traveled to 22 countries. He was an authority on beaked whales, published the work that separated common dolphins into two separate species and described the countercurrent heat exchange in whale tongues, among many other accomplishments. John was a strong supporter of ACS and its mission; he served on the organization’s Board of Scientific Advisors and taught the Whalewatch naturalist class for many years
The William S. Samaras Research Grant Award
William S. Samaras was a geologist by training but his first love was whales. He taught science at Carson High School for 30 years, helped shape the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro, California into the institution it is today and led the excavation of a gray whale skeleton during the construction of the Harbor Freeway in San Pedro. Bill was a lifelong supporter of ACS, an organization that he served in many capacities.
2025 Grant Submission
Deadline for Grant Submission
TBD, 1st Q 2025.
Award Amounts
We will be honoring John E. Heyning and Bill Samaras in alternating years with our Research Award of $3,000.
Eligibility
Applicant should be a researcher or a student living and/or attending school on the west-coast of the United States: California, Oregon or Washington.
Or
Current research focus should be on cetaceans located along the west coast of the USA.
Guidelines for Research Grants
The grant will be awarded to a researcher or student exhibiting an outstanding commitment to furthering the understanding of cetaceans along the west cost of the United States.
Requirement For Recipients
Recipients of the awards will be asked to present their research sometime in the next year at ACS-LA’s monthly speaker series. Please be prepared to share your work, with visuals, to the ACS-LA community.
Deadlines
2024 Research Grant Applications should be submitted by e-mail on or before midnight Pacific Standard Time (GMT -8) on 15-March-2024. Recipients will be notified of the award on or before by 15-April 2024.
Grant Application
Please feel free to contact ACS-LA Grants Chair Christina Tombach Wright with any questions at ACSLA.Grants@gmail.com.
Applications should be sent by E-mail to ACSLA.Grants@gmail.com.
John Heyning Research Grant Winners
2024
Jordan Reighhardt with Advisor Dr. Bridget Benson
and Research Partner Bart Selby
Granted for their work entitled “Marine technology, development of a disentangling device for whales trapped by the west coast crab fishing industry, with focal species including gray, humpback, fin, blue, orca and minke whales”. Jordan attends California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in the College of Engineering. The project objectives are to develop and test a small (about the size of a deck of cards), whale disentanglement device prototype that will be deployed for testing on commercial crab fishing lines. The “Whale Detangler” device will provide a simple, inexpensive, and durable way to free whales from fishing gear mere seconds after an entanglement happens. The device also allows for fishermen to continue to fish in the same manner they currently do, with no discernible impact to fishing productivity.
2023
Kelly DeForest
Kelly is a graduate student at SFSU working toward their Master’s Degree in Geographic Information Science. Their research is entitled: “Spatiotemporal distribution modeling of baleen whales in the Santa Barbara Channel, CA” and focuses on blue, humpback, and gray whales. Kelly will be using a 20-year whale observation dataset collected by the Channel Island Naturalist Corps (CINC) to investigate relationships with oceanographic, climatic, and bathymetric covariates to answer the following questsions:
2022
Dr. Shirel Kahane-Rapport and
Dr. Misty Paig-Tran
Granted for their work entitled “Filtration mechanisms and particle retention in rorqual whales” Shirel is currently a Post-doctoral scholar at California State University, Fullerton under the advisement of Dr. Misty Paig-Tran in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.
2019
Kelly R. Flanders
Using stable isotope analysis to characterize 100 years of spatial and temporal foraging trends in North Pacific orcas (Orcinus orca).
2018
Angela Szesciorka
Long-term passive acoustic recordings track changes in the migration timing of blue whales to southern California feeding grounds.
2017
Dr. Thomas A. Jefferson
Short-and-Long-beaked Common Dolphins of the Eastern North Pacific (Delphinus spp.): Clarifying Their Taxonomic Status.
2016
Angela Szesciorka
Long-term passive acoustic recordings track changes in the migration timing of blue whales to southern California feeding grounds.
William S. Samaras Research Grant Award Winners
2024
Lauren Kashiwabara
Granted for her research project entitled “Microplastics in the Pacific Gray Whale Food Web”. Lauren is a Ph.D. student in the EES Lab (Ecotoxicology and Environmental Stress Lab) in the Fisheries and Wildlife Conservation Sciences Department and Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station based at the Hatfield Marine Science Center of Oregon State University. Her project has two research components: 1. to Assess the Oregon Coast Ecosystem for sources/sinks of MP (microplastics) in the Oregon gray whale food web and 2. to Evaluate population level MP effects in the face of climate change. She will collect and isolate MPs from sediment collected in gray whale feeding grounds and from necropsy samples from stranded individuals and she will conduct MP toxicity testing and explore food web dilution by measuring growth and caloric values using bomb calorimetry methodologies.
2023
Ellyne Hamran
Ellyne is the Assistant Director and Researcher at Ocean Sounds Foundation – a 501(c)3 nonprofit in So Cal. (located in Oceanside, CA). Ellyne’s research is entitled “Orca Communication and Anthropogenic Impacts in the Arctic” and looks at acoustic and behavioral research on killer whales and long-finned pilot whales in Vestfjord, Norway. They are studying the occurrence, behavior, and acoustics of these two species using Photo-ID and underwater acoustical recordings to assess pod-structure and context of group-specific vocalizations.
2022
Lauren Fritz
Granted for her work entitled “Assessing the impacts of anthropogenic disturbance on humpback whales using noninvasive unmanned aerial systems”. Lauren is currently an NSF (National Science Foundation) GRFP (Graduate Research Fellowships Program) Fellow and a Ph.D. student in Ocean Sciences at the University of California Santa Cruz under the advisement of Dr. Ari Friedlaender in the Bio-Telemetry and Behavioral Lab.
2019
Maria Fernanda Urrutia Osorio
Does San Luis Gonzaga Bay (Baja California, Mexico) represent a spring feeding ground for fin whales in the Gulf of California?
2018
Caitlyn Birch
The effects of climate change on the tuna-dolphin association.
2017
Dr. Thomas A. Jefferson
Short-and-Long-beaked Common Dolphins of the Eastern North Pacific (Delphinus spp.): Clarifying Their Taxonomic Status
2016
Valentina Melica
Determining biomarkers for reproduction and stress response in blue whales (Balaenopetera musculus) from the North Pacific Ocean.
Additional Past Award Winners
The Corine Sutherland Memorial Research Grant (for gray whale research) Award
This was a one-time award in the amount of $1,000 given in 2022 in honor of ACS-LA Census volunteer Corine Sutherland. Corine Ann Sutherland, part-time Philosophy professor at community colleges such as Cerritos College and Long Beach City College, was also a dedicated Citizen Scientist. She volunteered with our ACS-LA Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project between 1987-2020, contributing 2,670 effort hours on 805 days – often anchoring Census crossover shifts on Fridays and Saturdays. She usually brought a beloved stuffed animal mascot (most often Bobo the Chimp), and asked everyone to kiss or fist-bump it for good luck. Corine loved all animals – especially whales – and often alerted others to what she was watching elsewhere. Her team members described her as being a friendly, efficient anchor who was genuinely interested in others and often did thoughtful things for them. She was very funny and delightfully quirky: she loved wearing a variety of hats, and loved to make people smile. She believed that there was “so much in the world to love and cherish.” She lost her hard-fought battle with cancer in October 2021. Corine was a big supporter of ACS and its mission: “…to protect whales, dolphins, porpoises, and their habitats through public education, research grants, and conservation actions.”
The Corine Sutherland Memorial Research Grant (for gray whale research) was awarded to Fernanda Urrutia Osorio for her work entitled “Application of drones to document the impact of whale-watching boats on the behavior of gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) in a nursing lagoon of Baja California. We feel this research completely imbibes the spirit of Corine and are very pleased to give this award. Fernanda is a Doctoral student in Marine Biology at Scripps Institute of Oceanography under the advisement of Eric Archer from NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center.
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