Category: News

The New Odyssey

Protocol for using iTag This week, I finished tagging the images taken by the eBee using iTag. The next step was to write a protocol for taking the photographs and…
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Grey Seals and Drones

Grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) are found on both shores of the North Atlantic. They feed a variety of fish, mostly benthic or demersal species. During the winter months, female grey…
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I didn’t crash it!!

This week had a lot going on. While continuing to work on the acoustic research paper, work began on the population counts of grey seals on Hay and Saddle Island.…
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Summer Research with Drones

First off, a little bit about me: My name is Lauren Arona. I am a rising senior at Wittenberg University majoring in biology and minoring in marine science. I am…
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The COVE opens!

I’m happy to announce that we have now opened a new visualization facility for our research group – the Coastal and Ocean Visualization Environment. The details on the facility are…
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“A Sea of Sound” Lesson Plan Published

Demi Fox, Julia Goss, Liza Hoos and I are proud to announce that our Lesson Plan called “A Sea of Sound” has been published in the new ALA Editions e-book,…
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Megafauna MOOC Concludes

Happy to report that I survived the first running of my Coursera MOOC: Marine Megafauna | An Introduction to Marine Science and Conservation. The course finished officially on April 6…
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3 Women Changing the World Through Technology

On March 6, 2014, I was extremely honored to be called one of “3 Women Changing the World through Technology” by Skype in association with International Women’s Day. Tim Lucas…
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New paper on Hawaiian Spinner Dolphin Abundance

I’m happy to announce the publication of the first quantitative abundance estimate for spinner dolphins on the Kona Coast of Hawaii Island. This work, led by Julian Tyne and part…
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New paper on basking shark distribution in the Bay of Fundy

Today Zach Siders published a paper in PLOS ONE on his work studying the distribution and dive behavior of basking sharks in the Bay of Fundy, based on records from…
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Coastal Walkabout citizen science framework is out of the gates!

Yesterday we launched Coastal Walkabout, a new open access citizen science initiative which utilises smart phone technology and social media to engage and motivate local communities to gather scientific observations…
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Apps, Articles and the Flexibility of the Nicholas School of the Environment

It has been a busy couple of weeks for the Johnston Lab, with the ‘publication’ of two products that have arisen from student projects in the Nicholas School’s Masters of…
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The Nai‘a Guide Released on iTunes

A new iPad app that has been in the works for the past year is now available on the iTunes App Store!  Whether you are planning a trip to the…
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The Cape Cod captures land 7 newly GPS tagged gray seals

Quite a week on the water in Chatham, MA on Cape Cod!  To list some of the accomplishments: the first live-captures (on our first attempt no less) of gray seals…
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The Mega MOOC: Taking Marine Megafauna online in Spring 2014!

Duke recently announced the next set of online courses that it will offer to the world through the Coursera system, and I’m excited and honored to be one of the…
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Bronx, the Cape Cod seal, and his spatial habits: a 5-month checkup

Our tagged gray seal—Bronx—has been busy in the inshore and offshore waters around Cape Cod these past six months as he continues to carry our GPS tag that pings back…
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Spinner article in Natural History magazine!

More great news on the heels of our return from the deep south, Heather Heenehan has just published an Endpaper piece in Natural History magazine about her work on spinner…
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Palmer Long-term Ecological Research Program: Rise of the Megafauna

[su_nt_image source=”http://superpod.ml.duke.edu/johnston/files/2013/02/2013-01-16-LTERBLOGDWJ-2013-01-17-DWJ-IMG_0415.jpg” width=”one_third”] Zach Swaim and I have just returned from a 6-week excursion to the deep south, to further incorporate and expand marine mammals studies into the epic Palmer…
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Duke Forward and Water – Presenting Ocean Mapping and Citizen Science

On the evening of September 29th, 2012 I was honored to stand on a stage with other Duke researchers to showcase new developments in the realm of “water” science to…
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iSeal checks in from Monomoy, Cape Cod

On September 15, 2012, a grey seal – named Bronx – was released from West Dennis Beach on Cape Cod with a tag on it’s back. After about 10 days…
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Artifacts of learning in marine science and conservation

We recently released a novel website focused on the evolution of science and management of spinner dolphins in Hawaii – the Norris to Now Timeline. The website takes the form…
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All bays are not created equal: Predicting spinner dolphin resting habitat

Coastal spinner dolphins in Hawaii, and elsewhere in the world, rely on sheltered bays for rest. These inshore locations provide an opportunity for dolphins to recover energetically and cognitively during…
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New paper on humpback whale densities

We’ve just got a new paper published in Endangered Species Research that provides the first estimates of humpback whale density in the late fall/early winter in the waters of the…
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Exmouth, across the Pilbara to Broome

[photo size=’small’ align=’right’]http://superpod.ml.duke.edu/johnston/files/2012/05/dugongfeature.jpg[/photo]We’ve made some tracks on this trip so far – after leaving Perth we flew to Exmouth to see the whale shark festival and do some aerial survey…
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Going Digital: Nature.com on new forms of textbooks

[photo size=’small’ align=’right’]http://superpod.ml.duke.edu/johnston/files/2012/07/cachaloticon.jpg[/photo]There is a great news story on Nature.com today, in their Careers section, that helps describe the evolving landscape of digital textbooks. Nature is in the game big-time,…
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The last great marine wilderness?

In about a week, we will be embarking on a project along the coast of Northwestern Australia, one of the last great marine wilderness regions on earth. This remote location…
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Ice seals and Cachalot in Spring 2012 Duke Environment

[photo size=’small’ align=’right’ link=’http://superpod.ml.duke.edu/johnston/files/2012/04/DEimage_preview.jpg’ icon=’zoom’ lightbox=’image’ ]http://superpod.ml.duke.edu/johnston/files/2012/04/DEimage_preview.jpg[/photo]The Spring 2012 issue of Duke Environment Magazine is out, and there are two articles that cover work done in the Johnston Lab. The…
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Scientists with Stories – Workshops and Small Grants

Here’s an update on the Scientists with Stories Project, (SwS) -a collaboration to create intensive training workshops and professional exhibition opportunities for PhD students affiliated with the Duke University Marine Laboratory…
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Cachalot featured in Scientific American

I’m really excited about where things are going with Cachalot, our digital textbook for Marine Megafauna here at Duke. This project has grown out of an incredible effort of students…
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Harp seals and ice: Media and hype

[photo size=’medium’ align=’right’]http://superpod.ml.duke.edu/johnston/files/2012/01/Seal-26th007.jpg[/photo]It’s been 13 days since our paper about changing sea ice conditions in breeding regions of harp seals was published in PLoS ONE. It has been incredibly interesting to…
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Harp seals on thin ice…

Today we published a paper on the effects of climate change on pagophilic seals in the North Atlantic in the open access journal PLoS ONE. The paper is available to…
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Introducing the Scientists with Stories Project!

There is much to be said about initiative, and the Scientists with Stories Project (SwS) is an excellent example of the best kind of initiative in academia – a bottom-up…
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Cachalot iPad application in the News again!

This morning I did an interview with Brittany Edney from Time Warner Cable’s News 14 – a 24 hour cable news channel that services all of North Carolina. Brittany was…
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Abstracts for Upcoming Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals

Our lab has several abstracts accepted for presentation at the upcoming 19th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals. The conference is being held in Tampa, FL during November…
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Cachalot and teaching innovation at Duke

This weekend was homecoming at Duke, and the place was crawling with alums, young and old. Some were back for football, others to see old friends, and a special group…
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Long Eddy finished, for now…

I’m finally back at the Duke Marine lab, after a series of adventures in Massachusetts that don’t really need dwelling on. It’s great to be back – seeing family, friends…
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You never forget your first (…whale)

I swear I looked down the long length of our 25-foot tag pole for what felt like minutes. The delicately positioned DTAG had disappeared from the end of the pole…
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A great day for research?

Today we sailed out to the Long Eddy and were greeted by unnaturally glassy and smooth seas, warm temperatures, and a clear blue sky. Sounds like a great day for…
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Tag On!

[photo size=’medium’ title=’We tagged this whale!’ align=’right’ link=’http://superpod.ml.duke.edu/johnston/files/2011/08/taggedfin_ASF.jpg’ icon=’zoom’ lightbox=’image’]http://superpod.ml.duke.edu/johnston/files/2011/08/taggedfin_ASF.jpg[/photo]After about 10 yrs or so from when we first thought about doing it, today we put out a DTAG on…
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In the Long Eddy…

We’ve embarked on our field season in the Bay of Fundy, seeking to tag fin whales as they exploit prey aggregations in an island wake system on the northern tip…
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Busy spring break!

Spring break at Duke is pretty much over, and it has been a busy time. Without classes to teach and with most of our research group at the Bio-logging conference…
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From Norris to Now: Comparing historic and present-day spinner dolphin research

Hi folks, Heather Heenehan here. I’m a Duke CEM student working with the Johnston lab. For the past year I have been involved in the SAPPHIRE Project – Spinner Dolphin…
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International Marine Conservation Congress – Ice and Seals

Our lab just got word that two abstracts have been accepted for oral presentations at the upcoming International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC) this May in Victoria, BC. I will be…
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Digital Sea Monsters Project

For the past year or so we have been slowly redeveloping the content of our Marine Megafauna course for mobile devices. More and more, we see students using their phones…
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Return to the Long Eddy!

Great news!  The National Geographic Society is going to fund a short field season studying the foraging ecology of fin whales in the Long Eddy, an island wake system in…
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New boat for spinner dolphin project in Hawaii

[dropcap4 color=”green”]I[/dropcap4]t’s official, we are now the proud owners of a new (at least to us) small boat for our work in Hawaii. The boat, which is currently without a…
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Southern Ocean GLOBEC predator synthesis

[dropcap4 color=”green”]W[/dropcap4]e got great news this week as our predator synthesis paper for the Southern Ocean GLOBEC project was fully accepted for publication in the journal Deep Sea Research. This…
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Welcome!

[dropcap4 color=”green”]W[/dropcap4]elcome to the website for the Johnston lab, part of the Marine Conservation Ecology group in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke Marine Lab. Here you will…
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