ACS Monterey Bay Program for November/December 2005

Using DNA to understand the population history of gray whales

	Thursday, December 1, 2005 7 p.m. Refreshments, 7:30 p.m. Program Lecture Hall, Monterey Boatworks, Hopkins Marine Station, Pacific Grove (Across from American Tin Cannery Outlet Stores)
Speaker: Liz Alter, Ph.D. Candidate, Hopkins Marine Station

Estimating pre-exploitation abundance in baleen whales has important implications for the management of current populations. Under certain assumptions, historical population size and demographic changes can be inferred from genetic data. Data from DNA provides independent population size estimates that can be compared to historical estimates based on whaling logbooks or census data.

The eastern Pacific gray whale is being used as a case study by sequencing DNA from 30-40 individuals. This population is recovering after two centuries of whaling, and is thought by some biologists to have surpassed its historical population size as estimated from whaling records. However, genetic data indicates that the actual historical population size of gray whales may have been significantly larger than today's population. Our speaker will discuss the issues surrounding the calculation of historical population size, and how genetic data can contribute to our understanding of the recovery of baleen whales.

Our speaker is a student of Dr. Steven Palumbi, who has used this technique which has enormous implications for cetacean conservation. This is a new and most interesting subject and we urge you to join us.

Related web pages:

• Liz Alter
• Whales Before Whaling in the North Atlantic (pdf file)
• Gray Whales Links

• Back to list of previous meetings.