SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA: Dr. Bruce Mate, Director of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, and John Calambokidis, Research Biologist of Cascadia Research, prepare to tag a whale. (Photo credit © Dave Adams / NGT)

“Kingdom of the Blue Whale” airs at 8 p.m. (ET/PT) on the National Geographic Channel and is narrated by popular awarding-winning actor Tom Selleck.

Much of the activity takes place from aboard the R/V Pacific Storm, an OSU research vessel operated through the university’s Marine Mammal Institute, which Mate directs. Filming took place off the coasts of California and Costa Rica, following 15 blue whales that Mate tagged and followed via satellite – a technology that he helped pioneer during his 33-year career at Oregon State.

“It was quite an adventure,” Mate said of the project, “but the more we learn about these great animals the better chance we have to protect them.”

An adult blue whale can grow to the length of a basketball court and weigh as much as 25 large elephants combined. Its mouth could hold 100 people, though its diet is primarily krill; its heart is the size of a small automobile. Scientists say the blue whale is the largest creature to ever inhabit the Earth – and it is one of the loudest animals in the sea, capable of making sounds equivalent to those of a jet engine, though at frequencies below human hearing.

Yet despite its enormity and vocal strengths, the blue whale remains one of the most mysterious animals in the sea. It is rare, it spends most of its time beneath the water, and its dives are deep. There once were nearly 10,000 blues along the Pacific coastline, but a century of whaling took its toll and that number has been reduced by some 75 percent. Though daunting, that pales in comparison to the Antarctic, where the population is less than 1 percent of what it was a century ago, when 250,000 blue whales populated its waters.

SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA: Supported by the National Geographic Society, scientists embark on a revolutionary mission to find, Identify and tag California blue whales using DNA samples. Then, they will follow the blue whale along the Costa Rica coast to observe and record the courtship behavior among the whales. (Photo credit © Dave Adams / NGT)

The research trip documented by the National Geographic Channel crew began in September of 2007, when Mate and his colleagues first tagged the blue whales off the coast of California and tracked them by satellite. Three months later, they journeyed to the Costa Rica Dome to relocate them.

Their goals were to discover whether this area – which actually is closer to Acapulco, Mexico, than Costa Rica – served as a feeding, breeding and/or calving area, and whether the whales that congregate there come exclusively from the California population.

“We discovered that the Costa Rica Dome is a key location for calving, breeding and feeding,” Mate said. “Based on John Calambokidis’ photo identification studies, the whales that congregate there probably didn’t all come from California. That suggests that some migrate there from elsewhere and we would like to know where that is. These are incredibly important finds about blue whales, which we know so little about. As best we know, feeding during the winter is quite unusual for baleen whales.

“The technology is improving every year and the tags we have developed at Oregon State have been critical to our success in tracking these animals over great distances and long periods of time,” he added. “They have allowed us to describe their seasonal distributions and define their critical habitat.”

The documentary features captivating underwater video of blue whales feeding, diving and interacting, as well as computer-generated graphics that illustrate the whales’ biology, communication and migration.

~ Mark Floyd

Coming soon in LIFE@OSU: Associate Professor Scott Baker appeared in a documentary about the slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan that has now won a Sundance award for Best US Documentary. “The Cove,” focuses on the problems of mercury contamination and the Taiji drive kill.

If your summer itinerary took you away for research, a sabbatical or just a good old-fashioned vacation, you may have missed some particularly interesting campus happenings. LIFE@OSU offers this recap for the information challenged.

OSU President Ed Ray presents honorary degrees to 23 former students. (photo: Jim Folts)

June
If you were unable to attend OSU’s 139th commencement ceremony, you not only missed the university’s largest-ever graduation, with some 4,600 degrees awarded, but the presentation of honorary degrees to 23 former students of Japanese ancestry who were forced to leave the university during the early years of World War II.

Victims of U.S. Executive Order 9066, which sent many of them to internment camps, most of the former students have since died. But several attended the ceremony, moving many in the crowd to tears by their grace and dignity.

Bindi, Terri and Bob Irwin visit Corvallis. (photo: OSU Foundation)

Later in the month, Terri Irwin, wife of the late Steve “Crocodile Hunter” Irwin, came to Corvallis to sign a memo of understanding with the OSU Marine Mammal Institute to fund a series of upcoming whale expeditions headed by Professor Bruce Mate. Accompanied by her Emmy-award winning, 9-year-old daughter, Bindi, and 4-year-old son, Bob, Terri captivated a standing-only crowd at the CH2M HILL Alumni Center and patiently indulged multiple interview requests.

Terri, who is originally from Oregon, disclosed that she and Bindi also plan to accompany Mate on at least one of the expeditions, which will be filmed for later broadcast on the Animal Planet cable network.

OSU Associate Professor Staci Simonich and Peking University student Wentao Wang gather air samples from a rooftop in Beijing during the Summer Olympics.

July
News that Staci Simonich, an OSU associate professor of chemistry and toxicology, would be part of an international team monitoring air quality in smoggy Beijing during the Summer Olympics prompted a spate of major, big media coverage. Outlets ranging from the Wall Street Journal to National Geographic to USA Today seized on the story, as did the Reuters and Associated Press wire services, sending the story around the globe.

The air quality, it turns out, was lousy for the Aug. 8 – 24 games, but not as bad as expected, Simonich reported. Chinese efforts to clean things up reduced particulates by 20 to 40 percent over previous year measures, but still left the air considerably below cleanliness standards that many visiting athletes experience in their home countries.

An interesting new partnership between OSU and the London-based Into University Partnerships firm began attracting its own considerable news attention in July. The agreement, the first that Into has signed with a U.S. university, aims to attract significantly more international students to OSU. If successful, the partnership could increase OSU tuition revenue by $25 million over the next five years. The New York Times and Chronicle of Higher Education were among the media writing about the arrangement, which promises to draw much more attention over the coming school year.

August
A pair of prominent new hires were announced in the first half of the month: new College of Liberal Arts Dean Lawrence R. Rodgers and Stephen Brandt, new director of the Oregon Sea Grant Program.

Rodgers , associate dean of Kansas State University’s College of Arts and Sciences since 2002, holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is a scholar in ethnic and racial minority literature. He’s been a recognized innovator at Kansas State, leading establishment of a first-year experience program and leading creation of a university-wide strategic plan. Rodgers replaced Vice Provost Larry Roper, who had served as interim dean over the past year.

Brandt comes to OSU from the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, replacing Robert Malouf, who served as Sea Grant director from 1991 until June of this year. An accomplished scientist with more than 90 publications, 80-plus scientific cruises and more than 220 presentations to his credit, Brandt begins work in Corvallis in January 2009.

Finally, if the dog days of summer left you feeling your age, George Poinar put the passage of time in perspective with his discovery of the world’s oldest gecko.

Poinar, a courtesy professor at OSU and one of the world’s leading experts on insects, plants and other life forms trapped in amber, published the finding in the journal Zootaxa along with fellow researchers from the National History Museum in London. The ancient lizard’s age? One hundred million, give or take a few summers.

~ by Todd Simmons

Reporters from National Geographic, Scientific American, The Associated Press and others learned about OSU's marine-related expertise.

For three days in August, influential news media representatives from around the country got a taste of what makes OSU one of the nation’s top marine research universities.

As part of “Our Changing Coastal Ocean: A News Media Fellowship Program,” journalists toured labs and heard presentations in Corvallis and at Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport on topics ranging from coastal ecology and salmon hatcheries to the ocean observing initiative.

Participants represented National Geographic, Scientific American, The Seattle Times, The Oregonian, Environmental Science and Technology, National Public Radio’s Pacific Northwest affiliates, the Associated Press and Oregon Public Broadcasting. The head of media relations for the National Science Foundation (NSF) also joined the program. The goal was to familiarize reporters with OSU’s expertise in issues related to climate change, marine mammals, commercial fisheries, ocean productivity and marine observing technologies.

“OSU’s marine researchers are leaders in their fields,” said Luanne Lawrence, vice president for University Advancement, which created and funded the program. “We help to develop ocean policies at the international and national levels and lead state and regional organizations. We wanted reporters who cover marine topics to meet our scientists in person and hear about their latest work.”

The program focused on the coastal ocean. Reporters learned about ongoing research on the seasonal “dead zone,” on marine mammal migrations and on wave energy developments. At OSU’s NSF-funded ocean sediment core repository, they heard how evidence in ocean sediment cores is shedding light on the frequency and severity of subduction zone earthquakes, such as the one that devastated countries around the Indian Ocean in 2004. At the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Lab, the group visited the tsunami wave basin and heard about plans to build a facility to study hurricane-generated waves.

In addition to lab visits, reporters met informally with OSU scientists at the HMSC and with community representatives at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. The impact of science on decision-making was the focus of discussions with state Sen. Betsy Johnson of Scappoose, state Rep. Jean Cowan of Newport and with people from local government and the fishing, economic development and tourism industries.

OSU is home to the third-largest assembly of marine researchers in the nation. They are based in the colleges of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Agricultural Sciences and Science as well as the Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station, Oregon Sea Grant, the Marine Mammal Institute, the Hatfield Marine Sciences Center and the OSU Seafood Research Laboratory in Astoria.

Just a few days later, select OSU Agricultural Sciences and Extension and Experiment Station faculty had a similar opportunity to get up close and personal with key media during a fellowship produced by the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources. Since 1995, IJNR has sought to foster higher standards of news coverage of natural resources and the environment, and its “Willamette Valley Institute” brought journalists together for one week to hear from experts and tour key areas.

At OSU, they heard from a panel of faculty on the topic of genetic modification of crop plants and from individual researchers on organic agriculture. Participating reporters represented such outlets as the Associated Press, the Washington Post and Jefferson Public Radio.

~ by Nick Houtman

"I am so proud to be developing a partnership with OSU for important research to conserve whales," Terri Irwin said at the signing on June 25.

Terri Irwin, whose efforts with Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin and daughter Bindi to protect wildlife have made her an international figure in conservation advocacy, today signed an agreement with the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University to fund two humpback whale research projects.

The agreement furthers Terri Irwin and Australia Zoo’s commitment to conservation and helps support the work of the OSU institute to gather critical data on endangered and threatened marine mammal species.

Terri Irwin and Bruce Mate, director of the OSU Marine Mammal Institute, announced that the agreement that will send Mate-led research teams to American Samoa and Dutch Harbor, Alaska, for intensive studies of humpback whale breeding, foraging, migration and stock identification.

“Thanks to Terri’s generosity and enthusiastic interest in protecting threatened wildlife around the world, we’ll be able to significantly expand the research capacities of the OSU Marine Mammal Institute,” said Mate. “We hope to show that it’s quite possible to gather the rich breadth of critical information we need to help protect whales without killing or injuring them.”

Terri Irwin has been a vocal opponent of harvesting whales for scientific purposes. The non-lethal methods used by OSU’s Marine Mammal Institute to study humpback and other whale species, she says, can provide much of the same information. The funds for this research, donated through Australia Zoo’s Wildlife Warriors USA, will create the Steve Irwin Whale Research fund.

“I am so proud to be developing a partnership with the OSU for important research to conserve whales. Steve was very passionate about whales. They are extraordinary creatures, and it is so important that we do everything we can to save them,” she said. “Learning about whales is part of a bigger picture. Our oceans are in jeopardy and the more research we gather about whales, the more knowledge we have to help us save, protect and preserve our delicate oceans.

“The Steve Irwin Whale Research Fund is a legacy of Steve’s love of whales – and stands as a reminder that one man CAN make a difference. I want it to be known all over the world that these projects prove that it is possible to gather biological research about whales, without harming them. It is unacceptable that whale research is still an excuse used to cull whales.”

Mutual interests in conservation resulted in Terri Irwin inviting Mate and his wife to the Australia Zoo, which she owns, to discuss research collaborations.

“Television viewers may not be aware that Terri’s involvement in conservation efforts goes far beyond Australia, literally spanning the world,” said Mate. “She’s helping with conservation projects spanning from saving elephants in Southeast Asia and humpback whales in the Pacific Ocean to Koalas and Tasmanian Devils throughout Australia.

“Australia Zoo also is fairly unique in that there are animal keepers at each exhibit to tell you about the conservation issues of the animals on display, their habitat problems and how we can help,” Mate added.

The agreement will fund two projects on humpback whales and both parties say more research collaboration is possible in the future. The OSU Foundation will receive the funds from Australia Zoo and Wildlife Warriors to support this research.

Humpback whales are on the Endangered Species List in the United States and are listed as “vulnerable” in the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Redbook.

In September, the OSU research team and Australia Zoo will collaborate on a project to tag up to 25 humpback whales near Unimak Pass at the eastern end of the Aleutian Island chain. During that time, huge concentrations of krill develop in the region, drawing millions of seabirds and hundreds of whales of many species, including the threatened humpback. Scientists believe that the humpbacks that gather in a mixed feeding aggregation in the Bering Sea will depart in the fall to separate breeding grounds off Hawaii and Central America.

The goal of the project is to tag the humpbacks and determine how much they intermingle in the feeding area, and track the timing, route and rate of speed for their migrations back to their respective breeding areas.

“This area is much more accessible than Antarctica, where we believe the same circumstances of intermingling stocks on the feeding grounds likely occurs,” Mate said. “We’ll use this project to develop sound methodology and statistical data that will help guide future studies in the Antarctic.”

In October, the OSU and Australia Zoo team will also travel to the tropical South Pacific where the scientists will tag humpback whales at American Samoa (northeast of Tonga) near the end of their reproductive season and use satellites to track their spring migration to Antarctic feeding grounds.

The research will shed light on the whales’ movements, possibly around the other islands of Oceania and where they go specifically in Antarctica to feed, Mate said.

“This is a little-studied population of humpback whales,” Mate pointed out. “Some of the groups of whales in this region are small and not recovering as well as populations in other areas, so it is important to better understand their movements. Harvesting humpbacks in the ‘wrong’ feeding areas of Antarctica could impede their recovery.”

This study is the first of several planned tagging projects to link the reproductive areas of humpbacks to their feeding areas.

The Marine Mammal Institute is raising new resources for its programs as part of The Campaign for OSU, the university’s first comprehensive fundraising campaign. Guided by OSU’s strategic plan, the campaign seeks $625 million to provide opportunities for students, strengthen the Oregon economy and conduct research that changes the world. Approximately $425 million has been committed to date.