ACS Monterey Bay Program for October 2007
The Science of Whales Video
Humpback Whale |
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Don Croll's program about foraging strategies of rorquals
in the California Current was originally scheduled for this date, but
was postponed due to illness. The substitute program was the showing of
a video called The Science of Whales, introduced by Bob Mannix
and featuring a segment with Don Croll.
Here is the description of the program that was originally
planned. (We hope to present this program in the future, but no date has
been set yet.)
Wind to Whales: Foraging Strategies of Rorquals in the California Current
Speaker: Don Croll, Ph.D.
Rorquals are baleen whales which are characterized by a body with longitudinal
groves or ventral pleats, long sleek bodies, a small dorsal fin and a
median notch in the flukes. This family of cetaceans includes the largest
animal believed to have lived on the planet, the Blue whale, which can
reach a length of about 100 feet and weigh nearly 300,000 pounds, as well
as much smaller members such as the Pigmy Right whale which reaches a
little more than 20 feet in length and about 10,000 pounds in weight.
Other Rorquals are the Humpback, Minke, Fin, Bryde's whale, Pygmy Bryde's
whale, Sei whale and Balaenoptera omurai, a possible new species
reported in 2003 with no common name available.
Among other things, our speaker's research takes an in-depth look at the
effect of this size difference in rorquals. He compared the foraging ecology
of two rorquals of dissimilar sizes, Blue and Humpback whales, to demonstrate
that extreme body size in blue whales facilitates the integration of patch
prey resources over large spatial scales to buffer environmental variability.
Don Croll is Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology,
UC Santa Cruz. Don has been a researcher, lecturer or professor at UCSC
since 1994 and from 1996 to 2000 was a lecturer in the Ocean Sciences
Department at UCSC.
Among many other accomplishments, Don co-founded and is Research Director
of the Island Conservation and Ecology Group which deals with some of
the conservation issues affecting Mexico's Baja Peninsula and the coast
of the Gulf of California.
Related web pages:
- University of California Santa Cruz
- Biography of Don Croll
- Croll Lab: Marine Ecology and Conservation Biology
- Island Conservation
- Back to list of previous meetings.
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Humpback whale illustration
by Robin Makowski.Last updated November 17, 2007.