Overview

On Friday, April 7th, 2023, The International SeaKeepers Society hosted the third Junior SeaKeepers Program webinar for Spring semester students. As we get further into our Spring Program, we were thrilled to have Dr. Ari Friedlaender, Principal Investigator of the Friedlaender Lab of Bio-Telemetry & Behavioral Ecology at the University of California Santa Cruz Institute of Marine Sciences speak as a part of our scientist-led virtual lecture series.

Ari is a marine ecologist who studies and teaches about the underwater behavior of marine mammals as a Professor in the Ocean Sciences Department at UC Santa Cruz and as the Director of Research for the California Ocean Alliance. His research focuses on developing and using new technology to understand the impacts of disturbance on these animals and how to use this information to develop conservation plans for marine ecosystems. Ari works around the world, but his research focuses on Antarctica and the waters off California. Over the past 6 years, Ari and his team have worked with SeaKeepers to study the foraging behavior and health of humpback whales in Monterey Bay. Using platforms supported by the SeaKeepers program, Ari and his students deploy video-recording tags to measure underwater behavior and use drones to fly over animals and measure their body condition. Our students thoroughly enjoyed chatting with Ari and we look forward to hearing more about his ongoing research in the future!

Outing Goal

By attending webinars led by past SeaKeepers research scientists, our Junior SeaKeepers have the opportunity to learn first-hand about the diversity of work that exists in the marine conservation realm. Additionally, students get direct access to accomplished professionals and are able to see the advancements in the field that are resultant of research happening directly alongside SeaKeepers through our DISCOVERY Yacht program. Ari’s talk was a great opportunity for students to hear about research conducted on another “charismatic” marine species in quite a competitive field as they get closer to their post-secondary education journey.

Partner Sites

Dr. Ari Friedlaendar, UCSC