Please Join SF Bay ACS for Maren Anderson's, "View Into Vocalizations."

For the last 15 years, Cetos Research Organization has used underwater videography with a variety of recording set-ups that allow us to capture both video and sounds in our studies of Hawaiian humpback whales. While collecting data on sounds and behaviors, we also, when possible, obtain photo identification of humpbacks, and collect annual song samples by tracking and recording singers. Our priority is the social sounds and underwater behaviors of different humpback groups.

In the 2015 field season, Cetos focused on using non-invasive suction cup tagging on mothers, calves, escorts, and competitive males, in order to track movements and acoustics both above and below water. These tags have ability to take in acoustic information as well as positional movement underwater. Join Maren to hear about using their current research to understand Hawaiian humpback whales on a new level, as well as give a sneak peak into a current publication underway on calf susceptibility to ship strikes.

Biography:
Maren Anderson began her love of Marine Science in high school when she was certified to SCUBA dive in Belize. Since then, her passion has continued in her studies and her work. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of Colorado at Boulder, in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology with a focus in Tropical Marine Ecology in 2007. During her studies, she performed health assessments of coral reefs in the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Pacific Oceans. Upon graduation, she worked with coral and marine ecosystem conservation at Disney World’s Living Seas exhibit as an education specialist, diver and marine mammal research assistant. She assisted in cognitive research of Atlantic bottlenose dolphin as well as the rehabilitation of West Indian manatees. Maren joined Cetos Research in 2012 as a research assistant for the Humpback Behavior Project focusing on the interactions between mother and calf pairs. Maren has participated in vessel- and land-based visual and acoustic towed array surveys, and assessing the abundance, density and distribution of marine mammals. These included locations such as Hawaii, the Mariana Islands, and the California coast, where she has studied pilot whales, spinner and bottlenose dolphins, Risso’s dolphins, beaked whales, harbor porpoise, California sea lions and harbor seals. She has served as visual observer and assistant acoustics team member on these surveys. On land, Maren serves as a research assistant and consultant for various government agencies in managing marine resources, specifically in marine mammals and coral. She also works as a high school teacher at Drew School in San Francisco, teaching Genetics, Evolution, and Marine Biology; and is the Director of Experiential Education programs for her school.