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Discover the heartbeat of Juneau's cultural and community landscape with 'Capital Chat.' This series explores the vibrant world of the community, arts, and dynamic cultural and social events happening in Alaska's Capital City. Tune in to 'Capital Chat' for your essential guide to the pulse of our community, where every story is an adventure and every voice matters.
And now Capital Chat on KINY, where we connect you with Juneau and Southeast Alaska's community organizations only on KINY.
Speaker 2:And good morning, Juneau. KINY eight hundred and ninety four point nine FM. I'm Justin Miller joining you this morning from a Gold Belt train, and our guest today for Capital Chat is doctor Heidi Pearson. How are we doing this morning, Heidi?
Speaker 3:Good morning, Justin. I'm doing well. Thanks for having me on the show.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm super excited to have you on the show because you're very knowledgeable about our marine life here in Juneau and specifically marine mammals and whales and all the things. We were kinda chitchatting a little bit before the show. But, I wanted to start off by talking about what's going on right now. What's the most recent project and how it got started that you're working on?
Speaker 3:I have a few projects going on. I can touch first on a project I've been involved in in Portugal. I just came back from Portugal last Monday.
Speaker 2:Oh wow.
Speaker 3:I was there for seven weeks and I had two main goals while I was there. One is I took a UAS class to Portugal. So I had 12 UAS biology, marine biology, fisheries majors that came over for twelve days. And we collaborate with a nonprofit there called AIM. And they have a field center where they provide opportunities for students to go out into the field and gain marine mammal research experience.
Speaker 3:And so we had a very good class and students were able to earn their course credit and also get international experience and research experience. And then after the course, I stayed and I did some common dolphin research with my colleagues there at AIM. So all in all, a really successful trip.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow. It being in Portugal, I have to ask the language barrier. Was that much of a challenge or was everyone pretty English kinda solid so you're able to translate and be able to conversate what was needed as far as the research and studying goes?
Speaker 3:Exactly. So we're pretty lucky, you know, being native English speakers that nowadays, especially in Europe, most everyone speaks English. And AIM is an international research organization. And so there's people there from all over Europe, many different cultures, but they all speak English. So there was no language barrier.
Speaker 3:I am trying to learn Portuguese, but honestly, it's a tough language. I can get by with some basic things, but, you know, really we speak English the whole time.
Speaker 2:Well, since we're already kinda on the topic of the Portugal trip, I wanted to ask, how does this program help prepare the students for careers in marine biology for that kind of conservationship and research by just going to an international area to do these kinds of studies?
Speaker 3:Well, it's a great experience for these students to get hands on field research experience, which, we can provide that in Juneau, but the ability to go to another country that in itself has its own benefits. And then they get hands on with different animals than we have here in Juneau and Alaska. So we study common dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, a variety of turtles, seabirds. And so it's just the whole package of experiential learning, gaining these skills that they can then put on their CV and hopefully that will advance them in the future.
Speaker 2:Okay. What was your favorite part of the venture over in Portugal?
Speaker 3:It's hard to pick one, but I think just some of the field days where we had, you you go out and it's a nice sunny warm day, you know, Portugal is known for having lots of sun, which is one of the reasons I really like it coming from Juneau. But we were treated with some really calm days on the ocean. I remember one day in particular, we were maybe ten, twelve miles offshore. We study these animals off the South Coast Of Portugal. And we were graced by the presence of a fin whale on one And fin whales are the second largest animal to ever exist on earth.
Speaker 3:And they're just beautiful, majestic, graceful animals. And it's always a treat to see them.
Speaker 2:Man, I wish I could see that. So you got another project that you got going on, the Juno Whale Health Project. How did that get started?
Speaker 3:So Juno Whale Health stands for Humpbacks Ecosystems and Long Term Histories. And so this is a collaboration between myself and three other humpback whale scientists based in Juno. It's a really nice collaboration. We have John Moran from NOAA, Susie Tierlink also from NOAA, and Shannon Atkinson from UA Fairbanks. And the four of us have been studying humpback whales for years, if not decades.
Speaker 3:But in 2020, during the COVID-nineteen pandemic, we formally banded together to form Juno Well Health because we were studying the potential effects of the cessation in vessel traffic that we experienced during the COVID-nineteen pandemic. And so since then, we're now entering our seventh year of Juno well health, which is amazing. So since that early study of potential effects of the pandemic on humpback whales, we broadened out to look at various aspects of humpback whale health. So currently, we're doing some tagging studies and also some drone work to assess various metrics of behavior and health of Geno's humpback whales.
Speaker 2:Okay. And so that's kinda how you guys collect data and that's not like any disruption whatsoever. It's pretty minimal, like you're very not messing with what's going on with the whales when you're tagging or even with the drone flying, right?
Speaker 3:So we have various methods that we use. So the most non invasive or hands off would be our photo ID where we take photographs of individual whales tails or flukes to identify individuals. And then the drone work is totally non invasive for flying above whales to look at body condition and behavior. And then last year and then this year, we're doing some suction cup tagging. So we do have to closely approach the whales to get that tag on.
Speaker 3:But then once the tag's on, we back off and want the whale to behave normally. And then another technique that we've used in the past is blubber biopsy. And this was important during our COVID study, we were trying to assess stress hormone levels, and we also look at reproductive levels. And we do that by looking at hormones in the blebber tissue. And so with that, we do need a small biopsy sample.
Speaker 3:So we consider that to be minimally invasive because we have to shoot a dart to get a small core of blebber. But overall, we try to be as least invasive as we can.
Speaker 2:Okay. So along those lines of when you're doing all this research, what do you think would surprise most people by some of the stuff you discovered probably?
Speaker 3:Gosh, you know, one of the things that I really like to think about and study with our humpback whales here is looking at things at the level of the individual. You know, we know these whales pretty well, we have their life histories. Some of these whales we've been studying for almost twenty years. And just thinking about whales, their lifespan is about the same as humans. They can live to be 80 or so.
Speaker 3:And they're very complex, they're very smart. And so just getting to know these whales at the level of the individual, you know, learning their life story. And for me, what I like to look at is their friendships or their association patterns. And we do see some whales that hang out with certain whales more than others. And so just looking at their social complexity and thinking that they really have these complex lives and it's really a privilege for us to be able to get a small window into what it's like to be a humpback whale.
Speaker 2:Okay. Yeah. I love watching like whale documentaries and when they really dive into the social hierarchy of whales and how they associate with each other. It blows my mind. It's very similar to obviously how most emotional animals interact.
Speaker 2:Are there particular indicators that tell scientists whether whale populations are thriving or struggling?
Speaker 3:There are. There's a number of them. So of course we can look at overall population size. And I'm also involved in this large humpback whale research collective with about 80 scientists across the North Pacific that study humpback whales. And through that, we've all contributed our data, which is mostly our photo ID images, so tracking these whales through space and time.
Speaker 3:And through that, we've been able to get really robust population estimates for humpback whales in the North Pacific. So just looking at how many there are is a really good metric if they're doing well or not. And then another good metric we're looking at is body condition. And that's what we're starting to do with the drones. And so you fly a drone directly overhead a whale, and then you can actually estimate its size, so its length and then even its mass or its volume.
Speaker 3:And you can track changes to basically how skinny or fat a whale is through time. And of course, we want humpback whales to be pretty fat. Because when they're up here in Juneau, they are recovering from the fasting they did on the breeding grounds, mostly in Hawaii. And so their job up here is really to eat. And so we're gonna try to look at how robust these animals are here in Juneau in terms of their body condition.
Speaker 2:And just for my mind's sake, do you think this twenty twenty six year was a good breeding year as far as our Southeast Alaskan whale population goes?
Speaker 3:You know, this year we have just one female that has returned with a calf. And so in previous years, we've had six or seven females return with calves. But not every female is going to have a calf each year. They usually take two, three, maybe four years between calves. So we've had a lot of females returning with calves in previous years.
Speaker 3:I think this year it's just a low because we've had so many productive females in the past. So I don't think that's any cause for concern. But what I am a bit concerned about is the predictions for an El Nino to formulate in the Pacific Ocean. And with that, we might see another marine heat wave coming. And the last major marine heat wave in the North Pacific was in twenty fourteen to sixteen.
Speaker 3:And through this larger humpback whale collective I mentioned across the North Pacific, we documented a pretty severe decline of about 25% We or think largely attributed to that heat wave because there wasn't a lot of prey around. And so our team is trying to kind of get some baseline data this summer, especially on body condition. So if there are some changes coming after this potential heat wave, we can monitor it better.
Speaker 2:And how do you think, humpbacks and other marine species are adapting to that changing kinda ocean conditions? Do like, you kinda touched a little bit on it. Like, obviously, food's very minimal, but do you think Whales are very smart creatures. You think they would be able to feel that change of temperature to kind of divert themselves from that warmer waters?
Speaker 3:Right, to a certain extent. And humpback whales, they have a pretty diverse diet. And so one of the things that we're starting to notice is humpback whales occurring further north. There are some reports of humpback whales in the Arctic, which is a new thing. And they're likely just moving up north in search of prey.
Speaker 3:And so I do think in terms of whales in general, humpback whales are probably one of the most adaptable ones because they can feed on different types of prey with different foraging strategies, they're able to adapt. But what happened with that heat wave about ten years ago is that the prey base overall was just so reduced that even if they were eating different types of prey, they still just couldn't get enough to sustain themselves.
Speaker 2:Okay. Kind of since we're on that topic, is there a little bit of hope that you see when you look at the future of conservation and marine science as far as the environment goes?
Speaker 3:There is, there is. And so again, humpback whales are a really nice conservation success story because their numbers were decimated during large scale industrial whaling in the twentieth century. And after that stopped, humpback whales and other whales were able to recover on their own once they received those protections. And humpback whales have recovered quite nicely. You know, we had that dip because of the marine heat wave, but since then the populations have been increasing again.
Speaker 3:And so I think humpback whales are a good example for us that if we give them the protection they need, they can do their part by living expanding their population. So I think they just need they just need the protection and the space and time to thrive, and they will.
Speaker 2:And kinda on the topic of protection since obviously not everyone's a marine biologist, how can just common citizens do their part to help conserve or like help protect these awesome animals?
Speaker 3:That's a great question. There's a lot of things we can do. So speaking locally here in Juneau, one of the things that anyone that's operating a boat can do is just to always be looking out for blows and spouts. And when you see one, just try to maneuver around that area and importantly slow down because we do have vessel strikes that happen in Juneau from all sizes of boats. And so just being very mindful when you're on the water that we are in the space of marine mammals, whales and other animals.
Speaker 3:So just being mindful of giving them the space they need. And then otherwise, anything that we can all do to reduce our carbon footprint can help to mitigate climate change because we know that climate change has a big impact on humpbacks and other whales. And then just other ecologically friendly practices, you know, don't litter, especially in the ocean. Any litter on land eventually ends up in the ocean. Doing things like snipping any loops or you know, six pack rings before you put them in the garbage that can help save the lives of birds and other marine life.
Speaker 3:So just being mindful about how we are using our resources and treading lightly on the earth.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's great. So one more question kind of about the trash and this might be for myself or for other listeners that struggle with this, but plastic straws, what is the proper way to dispose of plastic straws to protect our marine life?
Speaker 3:Oh gosh. Well, I mean, just make sure they get securely in the trash can. But that's another great example is I'm seeing more and more places give out paper or compostable straws. And in Europe, they use plastic much less than we do. Know, they don't have plastic bags, they don't have plastic cups and straws.
Speaker 3:And so I think we are already seeing changes in reducing plastic consumption around the world. And I'm seeing that in The US as well. But certainly just make sure any plastic gets in the garbage can and pick up any plastic that you see as well. Every little bit helps.
Speaker 2:Okay. That's great. So we're wrapping up. We have a few more a couple more minutes left and I just wanna ask a couple personal questions. So after years of studying humpback whales, is there a particular encounter, a moment in the field that stands out in your memory?
Speaker 3:There are so many
Speaker 2:What about absolutely the most recent one that's kind of stuck with you?
Speaker 3:The most recent one. Well, this is actually a moment that's coming to mind. It was during 2020 or 2021 when we were out studying humpback whales during the pandemic. And it was a really special time to be out amidst the challenges of the pandemic, but there weren't a lot of boats on the water. And so I was with a couple of my colleagues from NOAA, and we were out on the NOAA research vessel.
Speaker 3:And it was September or October, I forget, but it was a calm sunny day, like one of those really nice calm fall days we get here in Juneau. And we were standing on the bow of the sashen, the boat, and I think we had the engine off. We were watching some humpback whales and then we could hear the humpback whales calling from under the surface. Just we were above the surface listening with our ears, and we could hear them calling underwater. And that was just pretty magical.
Speaker 3:Know, whenever we can get like that pure insight into humpback whales, that was one of the of the special moments I remember.
Speaker 2:Especially on the water, you don't really get those just silent moments, especially like you're saying the motor the motor was off, you obviously didn't have that noise pollution going on. So that's I guess picture that. That does sound very magical.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:And before we wrap things up, what's one thing you wish every Juneau resident knew about whales that share our waters? I know that's kind of an open ended question, but
Speaker 3:Right. Well, I think just going back to what I was saying before of their intelligence and their social complexity. You you might look at a whale and you think, Oh, it's just a whale. But actually it's a unique individual that has its own story and I think that they deserve a lot of respect.
Speaker 2:Okay. So before we wrap things up, is there anything you want to throw out there before we close out for the day? Recent projects, ways to get ahold of you if they have questions or anything like that?
Speaker 3:Well, our Juneau Well Health project does have a website, juneauwellhealth.com, if you want to check that out. And we do have what's called a fluke update where we have reported our major findings from the first five years of our study 2020 to 2024. If you have any questions, you can find my university contact information on the website. And then also just a plug for my chancellor who wanted me to say that UAS fall registration is open and we'd encourage folks to register. We have some great offerings, especially in marine biology what I teach in, but it's a great time to register for fall classes at UAS as well.
Speaker 2:Oh, perfect. Well, Doctor. Heidi Pearson, thank you so much for joining us on Capital Chat here on KI My this morning, and I hope you have a good rest of your day and we'll definitely talk really, really soon. And that should do it.
Speaker 3:Thanks so much. My pleasure.
Speaker 2:Of course. You've been
Speaker 1:listening to Capital Chat on KINY, your connection to the people and organizations making a difference in Juneau and Southeast Alaska. Subscribe to the Capital Chat podcast everywhere you listen to your favorite podcasts and at kinyradio.com.