A humpback whale calf breaches in front of our Zodiac. Photo by Zach Swaim.
We are proud to have joined the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) team, studying the the ecology of the Antarctic Peninsula, supported by the National Science Foundation. This is a six-year project and our component is led by Read Lab alum Ari Friedlaender, now a faculty member at Oregon State University, together with Dave Johnston, Doug Nowacek and Andy as co-PIs. This January, Andy and Zach are sampling humpback whales from Palmer Station while Dave and Ari are sampling and deploying satellite-linked tags on humpbacks over a broader area of the Antarctic Peninsula on the Antarctic Research Vessel Laurence M. Gould. You can follow our adventures here and here. And check out the Palmer Station webcam here.
A feeding humpback lunges through a bubble net near Palmer Station. Photo by Andy Read