SOCAL-BRS is progressing well in some ways, despite the extremely limited distribution of large baleen whales in some of our typical coastal areas. As you may have read, the strong El Nino conditions that are setting up off California have resulted in some very warm water temperatures. As a result, we are seeing a lot […]

SOCAL-BRS is now operational for our second field phase of 2015. We are working with several research vessels including the Truth out of Santa Barbara and have been searching the coastal and offshore waters for our focal species. These include endangered blue and fin whales as well as beaked whales and Risso’s dolphins. Again, you […]

On behalf of all the collaborators and partnering organizations that are a part of the amazing field research effort known as the Southern California Behavioral Response Study (SOCAL-BRS), I would like to make folks who follow our blog aware that we have just started another phase of field work in this continuing project. You can […]

    The SOCAL-BRS team is proud to announce the publication of an important new paper on the calling behavior of endangered fin whales (like the one below, tagged with one of the sensors described in the paper – credit J. Calambokidis under NMFS permit #14534). Dr. Alison Stimpert of Moss Landing Marine Laboratory led the […]