Tag: marine mammal

Gavin Cada, TOPAZ/JASPER HS intern, Brookings-Harbor High School

Hi, my name is Gavin Cada and I am a high school intern for the 2026 TOPAZ/JASPER project. I currently go to school at Brookings Harbor High School but I am originally from Las Vegas, Nevada. Having just moved to the south coast of Oregon a little under a year ago, I heard about the TOPAZ/JASPER project through my school’s TRIO ETS program and decided to apply because of my interest in Biology, but more specifically to experience real field work that contributes to professional science.

In school, I learned about our changing environment and the primary impact of anthropogenic activity. During my spare time, I’ve really enjoyed conducting my own research and learning about conservation efforts through the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF). Specifically, a figure that has always remained with me is the Living Planet Index’s 2024 graph that measures the average global population change of monitored vertebrate populations from 1970 to 2020. The graph shows a clear negative decline of vertebrate populations over the last 50 years. From this graph, it is clear that current wildlife populations are experiencing drastic effects, and I am curious to learn about what methods can be used to support them. Publicly available data has shown that anthropogenic activity is a large part of this current decline in biodiversity through CO2 emissions, global warming, and other listed reasons in the IBPES report not mentioned (1). I feel responsible for the protection of Earth’s natural resources not only because I appreciate ecosystems but because humans depend on them through industries such as fishing and agriculture.

Fig. 1. Graph for the 2024 Living Planet Index showing average population decline of monitored vertebrate populations at WWF sites globally (https://www.livingplanetindex.org/lpi)


A marvel I have found interesting during my time with this internship is that the ocean, whilst deceptively appearing flat to the human eye, actually has thousands of microorganisms, zooplankton, and algae living within it. Growing up in Las Vegas, Nevada, the ecosystems I had been exposed to were actually not so different from the Oregon Coast when it comes to hiding how dynamic they are. At Mount Charleston, one of my favorite locations, I frequently encountered Wild horses (Equus ferus), Palmer’s chipmunks (Neotamias palmeri), Western yellowjackets, and small birds such as the slate colored dark eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) and American robin (Turdus migratorius). Although I didn’t initially have a camera in my time in Nevada, I built up my basic understanding of wildlife photography and animal behavior by using my phone’s camera.

Fig. 2. Image of fellow TOPAZ/JASPER intern Owen Fewell (left) and myself (right) after completing our GPS training activity at the beginning. of our field season.
Fig 3.  Screenshot of a smartphone video I took of Wild horses at Fletcher View campground, Mt Charleston.

When I moved to the Oregon coast, I obtained a massive upgrade for my wildlife photography. Not only did I get a new camera, but I also gained new access to a variety of different environments: from the coast and marshes to forests. Having a professional camera has allowed me to get clearer photos of birds, mammals, and insects to upload to citizen science platforms like iNaturalist. However, imagine my surprise when I learned that citizen science can go beyond land and into the water through the Pacific Coast Feeding Group (PCFG) gray whales and the GEMM lab’s website, Individuwhale.com.

Fig. 4:  Two images I took with my camera of a predator-prey relationship in the sands at Harris Beach state park of the intertidal jumping spider (left) that preys on beach arthropods like this sand hopper(right).

Over the past 10 years the GEMM lab (Geospatial Ecology off Marine Megafauna) has created a photo ID catalogue composed of photos taken of PCFG gray whales to be used to monitor their movements and health. Amazingly, this photo ID catalogue is hosted on the website “Individuwhale,” also created by the GEMM lab. Individuwhale has multiple purposes, but most importantly the website acts as a public resource for the general public to learn about who the PCFG gray whales are and the research that has come from the GEMM lab. One of the most impactful elements of Individuwhale would be their “submit a whale sighting” feature, which allows any individual to contribute to science by submitting photos taken of PCFG gray whales.

But what makes a photo so important?

During my six weeks with the TOPAZ/JASPER project, I learned so much of the projects’ importance in science as well as its impact. One objective of TOPAZ (Theodolite Overlooking Predators and Zooplankton) is to observe the relationship between abundance of prey in Port Orford, OR and the presence or absence of the PCFG gray whales during their migration. One of the tools we use to observe whales on our cliff site is a camera. A camera is important because photos can act as records for a whale’s presence at a certain time and place, so overtime researchers can review and identify unique patterns. Photos are also important for identifying species, such as gray whales, and can capture individual characteristics (like scars from killer whales, flat vs round dorsal humps, etc.) (read more from Ale’s previous blog, Stories from a whales life). Finally, photos can be a record for a whale’s body condition, and demonstrate how anthropogenic activity, such as boat strikes or entanglement scars, can impact their health. During the last stretch of our field season, we observed our first whale of the season named “Propscar”. After capturing as many photos as possible of the whale when it surfaced, we sent the best photos to members of the GEMM lab who later identified this whale as Propscar as a result of this photo ID catalogue. As you can see from the photo below, Propscar is a great example of using photography to assess whale condition and health monitoring, since the 4 distinct line shaped marks clearly originate from a boat strike.

Fig. 5: Photo we took of Propscar in Port Orford, OR. (Note the 3-4 distinct propeller mark lines on Propscar’s dorsal hump).

Ultimately, this internship with the TOPAZ/JASPER project this summer has been a thoroughly educating experience that taught me so much. I have learned that teamwork and proper communication are crucial to ecological field work. I’ve also learned that patience, and handling the bits of boredom that come with staring at a horizon line, are normal everyday factors of the job. Success isn’t always guaranteed in the field; we don’t always see gray whales everyday and we had only seen one this season, but to define this as a failure would be far from the truth. While this lack of whales could be perceived as failure, we collected critical absence data on gray whales that tells an important story, so you shouldn’t judge your fieldwork’s effectiveness off of factors that are out of your control.

My time here has meant many things to me: learning how to be a scientist, connecting with people, and contributing to professional science. But the part I have found the most enjoyable was learning about the scientific equipment used for the TOPAZ/JASPER project. Equipment isn’t the only thing I’ll be working with in my future career though; through this internship I have also learned about reliable data entry and computer skills which I am excited to apply down the road.

References

  1.  Brondizio, Eduardo, et al. “Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.” Zenodo, Zenodo, 16 July 2024, zenodo.org/records/6417333.
  2. “Living Planet Index.” Livingplanetindex.Org, www.livingplanetindex.org/lpi. Accessed 5 Sept. 2026

A Weekend of Inspiration in Marine Science: NWSSMM and Dr. Sylvia Earle!

By Karen Lohman, Masters Student in Wildlife Science, Cetacean Conservation and Genomics Lab, Oregon State University

My name is Karen Lohman, and I’m a first-year student in Dr. Scott Baker’s Cetacean Conservation and Genomics Lab at OSU. Dr. Leigh Torres is serving on my committee and has asked me to contribute to the GEMM lab blog from time to time. For my master’s project, I’ll be applying population genetics and genomics techniques to better understand the degree of population mixing and breeding ground assignment of feeding humpback whales in the eastern North Pacific. In other words, I’ll be trying to determine where the humpback whales off the U.S. West Coast are migrating from, and at what frequency.

Earlier this month I joined the GEMM lab members in attending the Northwest Student Society of Marine Mammalogy Conference in Seattle. The GEMM lab members and I made the trip up to the University of Washington to present our work to our peers from across the Pacific Northwest. All five GEMM lab graduate students, plus GEMM lab intern Acacia Pepper, and myself gave talks presenting our research to our peers. I was able to present preliminary results on the population structure of feeding humpback whales across shared feeding habitat by multiple breeding groups in the eastern North Pacific using mitochondria DNA haplotype frequencies. In the end GEMM lab’s Dawn Barlow took home the “Best Oral Presentation” prize. Way to go Dawn!

A few of the GEMM lab members and me presenting our research at the NWSSMM conference in May 2019 at the University of Washington.

While conferences have a strong networking component, this one feels unique.  It is a chance to network with our peers, who are working through the same challenges in graduate school and will hopefully be our future research collaborators in marine mammal research when we finish our degrees. It’s also one of the few groups of people that understand the challenges of studying marine mammals. Not every day is full of dolphins and rainbows; for me, it’s mostly labwork or writing code to overcome small and/or patchy sample size problems.

All of the CCGL and GEMM Lab members excited to hear Dr. Sylvia Earle’s presentation at Portland State University in May 2019 (from L to R: Karen L., Lisa H., Alexa K., Leila L., Dawn B., and Dom K.) . Photo Source: Alexa Kownacki

On the way back from Seattle we stopped to hear the one and only Dr. Sylvia Earle, talk in Portland. With 27 honorary doctorates and over 200 publications, Dr. Sylvia Earle is a legend in marine science. Hearing a distinguished marine researcher talk about her journey in research and to present such an inspiring message of ocean advocacy was a great way to end our weekend away from normal grad school responsibilities. While the entirety of her talk was moving, one of her final comments really stood out. Near the end of her talk she called the audience to action by saying “Look at your abilities and have confidence that you can and must make a difference. Do whatever you’ve got.” As a first-year graduate student trying to figure out my path forward in research and conservation, I couldn’t think of better advice to end the weekend on.