American Cetacean Society - Los Angeles Chapter (ACS/LA)

16 hours ago

She's out! An orphaned orca calf that has been stranded in a B.C. lagoon for weeks after her pregnant mom died while hunting seal, swam out on her own around 2:30 this morning during high tide! Multiple attempts were made to rescue her since she became trapped in late March. A rescue team fed the two-year-old calf, kʷiisaḥiʔis (or Brave Little Hunter) harbor seal meat. The calf was breaching and playing at the end of the lagoon near the causeway bridge, then swam under the bridge and down the inlet. This morning they will encourage her out toward the open ocean, where it is hoped that the Brave Little Hunter's calls will now be heard by her family. Fantas#acslacetaceaninfotaceaninfo ... See MoreSee Less

Orca calf that was trapped in B.C. lagoon for weeks swims free

bc.ctvnews.ca

An orca whale calf that has been stranded in a B.C. lagoon for weeks after her pregnant mother died swam out on her own early Friday morning.

American Cetacean Society - Los Angeles Chapter (ACS/LA)

17 hours ago

Saving entangled whales: reports of whales trapped in fishing gear are increasing worldwide, as are risky attempts to free them. This compelling article about whale entanglement - and disentanglement - includes insights by Scott Landry (Director of the Center's Marine Animal Entanglement Response Program), and David Mattila (Coordinator of the Global Whale Entanglement Response Network). Highly informat#acslacetaceaninfoninfo ... See MoreSee Less

Saving whales, one rope at a time

dialogue.earth

Reports of whales trapped in fishing gear are on the rise worldwide, as are the risky attempts of ‘disentanglers’ to free them

American Cetacean Society - Los Angeles Chapter (ACS/LA)

1 day ago

The Los Angeles Chapter of the American Cetacean Society is pleased to announce the two awardees of the 2024 ACS-LA Grants-in-Aid-of-Research. Each awardee will receive a check in the amount of $3,000.00 to be used to fund their worthy scientific research efforts. This year, 2024, ACS-LA received an extraordinary number of extremely high-caliber applications and the Grants Committee deliberated at length and with great difficulty, finally decided upon these two outstanding research projects. This year, 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 research grants.

The winner of the 2024 John Heyning $3,000 Research Grant Award is: Jordan Reighhardt with Advisor Dr. Bridget Benson and Research Partner Bart Selby for their research project 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.

The winner of the 2024 William S. Samaras $3,000 Research Grant Award is Lauren Kashiwabara 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.

Supporting noteworthy research projects in this way would not be possible without the support of our members and generous donors. Your membership dollars and targeted donations go directly to supporting research efforts and students such as Jordan and Lauren. Keep an eye out for future presentations offered by ACS-LA and our partners presented by and showcasing the work of these two talented students.

Please continue to support ACS-LA by becoming a member — click here: acs-la.org/membership/
Or with your continued support — donate through the link at the top right corner of our home page here: acs-la.org/ ... See MoreSee Less

Membership | ACS Los Angeles

acs-la.org

Join ACS-LAHelp protect cetaceans and their habitats Join Now FREE PATCH WITH NEW MEMBERSHIP! Send us an email after you’ve joined the Los Angeles Chapter of ACS with the date you joined, your choic...