The Whalenerd‘s Podcast

Episode 151 - Maui Reunion

18 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Slater is back! We caught up this winter in Maui and had a nice chat about our impressions and experience on the island for the first time in several ...

Episode 150 - Special Guest Chelsi Napoli

21 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Katlyn and Chelsi chat about east coast humpbacks! Chelsi Napoli is currently a PhD candidate at Stony Brook University in the Thorne Lab. In the lab,...

Episode 149 - Southern Ocean Adventures

11 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Katlyn is back from Antarctica with more stories from her time as an expedition guide this season. Hear about sightings of penguins, seals and whales ...

Episode 148 - Summer in Svalbard

25 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Katlyn shares some of her encounters and adventures working in Svalbard this past summer.

Episode 147 - Special Guest Kayah George

14 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We had special guest Kayah George, a Coast Salish matriarch in training, on this week to chat about some of her passions and knowledge about killer wh...

Episode 146 - Special Guest Alex Brash

24 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week's episode we had Alex Brash join us to talk about his new book: A Whaler at Twilight: A True Account of Whaling and Redemption in the South ...

Episode 145 - Last Call on the Peninsula, South of the Circle

10 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is the last episode of Antarctica trip reports! Hear about Katlyn's adventures in Argentina during her break, and the last two trips of the seaso...

Episode 144 - A little bit of Chile

26 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

With some down time from the ship, Katlyn took an adventure in Chile with her family before embarking again for the Southern Ocean. Hear about her tri...

Episode 143 - Holidays on the Peninsula

29 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Three Antarctic Peninsula trips in one month. Whew! It was a lot but there were so many whales and cool science! Hear more about Katlyn's time in the ...

Episode 142 - South Georgia Developments

15 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As avian flu continued to spread on the island of South Georgia, trips became more challenging. Listen to Katlyn's stories of the next month worth of ...

Episode 141 - Introduction to the Kingdom of Penguins

27 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After a small break - Katlyn is back with updates from the Southern Hemisphere. Hear about her first trip of the season to South Georgia and Antarctic...

Episode 140 - End of Alaska Summer

20 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Katlyn gives a review of the last part of her Alaska season and talks about a few bonus trips at the end.

Episode 139 - Aleutians & Bering Sea Updates

07 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Katlyn gives a mid season update on her Alaska summer. The ship she is on is covering the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands and SE Alaska. Hear about whale...

Episode 138 - Killer Whales Are Winning The Internet

10 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Killer whales are winning the summer of 2023 online. In the midst of heavy news coverage of the Iberian orcas interacting with boats making headlines ...

Episode 137 - Getting Caught Up / One Month in Alaska

24 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After a longer break Katlyn is back with a recap episode from the spring trips and her first month at sea in Alaska. Listen in for a detailed recap of...

Episode 136 - North Atlantic Right Whales Moms & Calves 2023

14 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week we checked in on the North Atlantic Right Whale breeding season. Meet the moms for this season and a little about their history!

Episode 135 - Humpback whales in Japan

31 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There are multiple breeding areas off the Western North Pacific Ocean where humpback whales go to breed in the winter. We covered a recent paper that ...

Episode 134 - Special Guest Belén García Ovide

17 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We were so excited to talk to Belén for this episode about her work in Iceland. Belén is a marine biologist, wildlife guide, and sailor who works i...

Episode 133 - Hippos are whales

10 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Slater is back from his safari trip to Kenya! After talking about whale sightings and safari sightings we chat about how hippos are indeed distant cou...

Episode 132 - Humpback Movements in the Southern Hemisphere

20 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week Katlyn takes us through some information about humpback whale migration patterns in the Southern Hemisphere. After Slater came back from Ton...

Episode 131 - ’Tis the Season for Baby Whales

07 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Happy New Year! Several birthing events for large whales in the North Pacific have been documented this winter. So we did a recap of the latest events...

Minisode 14 - Early Season Maui Update

23 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This is our last episode of 2022. We talked through an early season update for Maui with some data from NOAA, observations on the water, and some news...

Minisode 13 - Humpbacks Have NO Rules

09 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week we get caught up on a few updates for everyone, including sharing some gratitude for you all. We are so grateful to everyone that listens to...

Episode 130 - Special Guest Andy Rogan

02 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week we had guest Andy Rogan on from Ocean Alliance. Andy is the Science Manager for the Ocean Alliance SnotBot program. We chatted about new tec...

Episode 129 - Whales in New York

11 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Whale sightings have still been going strong as whales are working their way South for winter season in the Northern Hemisphere. Katlyn took a trip to...

Episode 128 - Special Guest John Ryan

28 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We chatted all things hydrophone this week with John Ryan from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). As you know, we are huge fans of ...

Episode 127 - Close Encounters of the Whale Kind

22 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We have had quite a few friendly humpback whale encounters over the past month. So we wanted to chat more about what makes an encounter "friendly" wit...

Minisode 12 - How Sound Moves in the Ocean

14 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Katlyn takes us through the basics of how sound moves in water. You can learn the definitions of how sound is characterized and how it's measured. Fee...

Episode 126 - Slater’s Tonga report

07 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Slater is back from his trip to Tonga and we couldn't wait to talk about it! Hear about his experience swimming with humpbacks in a Southern Hemispher...

Episode 125 - How Fin Whales Are Moving In The Southern Hemisphere

30 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week Katlyn did a little follow up on the fin whale story from Antarctica that we have been talking about throughout the summer. For more backgro...

Episode 124 - The Basics of Humpback Competitive Behaviors

23 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Competitive behaviors are ramping up in the Northern Hemisphere! Humpback whales have started practicing and engaging in competitive behaviors while s...

Episode 123 - Remembering Fran

16 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It’s been awhile since we had the chance to catch up on summer sightings in Monterey. We also had some sad news about a well known whale in Californ...

Episode 122 - Special Guest Katherina Audley

26 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week we chatted with Katherina Audley about humpback whales in Southern Mexico. For almost the last 10 years she has fostered an incredible commu...

Episode 121 - Big Surprises

19 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Our sightings report was a little bit shocking and has some adult humor. We talked quite a bit about what we think the killer whales off the Californi...

Episode 120 - Lettuce Talk About Manatees

12 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

After two rough winters in a row for the manatees in Florida around Indian River - we wanted to chat about the state of the response to help these ani...

Episode 119 - Special Guest Matthew Savoca

06 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We had a guest this week. Dr. Matthew Savoca joined us to talk about his work with marine plastics and baleen whale prey consumption. He is currently ...

Episode 118 - The Southern Continent with Ted Cheeseman

22 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ted was back for another episode with us this week. This time around we chatted with him about his background with Cheesemans' Ecology Safaris and our...

Episode 117 - Fin Whale Party in Antarctica

15 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Hundreds of fin whales gather in Antarctic hotspots in large feeding aggregations. This story has been in the news cycle off and on for months now. Gr...

Episode 116 - The Dolphin Spa

15 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week we talked about Indo Pacific bottlenose dolphins and their unique spa treatments. These animals in the Red Sea have figured out how to use ...

Episode 115 - Introducing: Antarctica

01 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We are so excited about our trip to Antarctica this winter! In preparation for our trip with Cheeseman's we have started to learn about the southern c...

Episode 114 - Offshore Killer Whales of the Eastern North Pacific

17 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We have a couple announcements this week. The San Juan Islands trip has been postponed to October of 2023 - you can still book this trip on our websit...

Episode 113 - Special Guest Dave Cade

03 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We had Dave Cade on this week to talk to us about whale and shark tagging. Dave has worked with rorqual whales all over the globe and is currently wor...

Episode 112 - Humpback Update for the US West Coast

27 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

There are so many humpback whales on the California Coast right now! So it was only fitting that we talked about a new memo from NOAA about the status...

Episode 111 - Blue Whale Body Condition

20 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

New mics! Can you tell the difference?  The nerds talk about recent sightings along the California coast including blue whales in Monterey! A recent ...

Episode 110 - Crazy sightings and Gray whale report

13 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week we talked about the final report from the Baja Lagoons in Mexico. The gray whale breeding season is ending on a higher note than years past,...

Episode 109: Special Guest Chase Dekker

08 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Episode 109 We had a special guest Chase Dekker. Chase was born and raised in Monterey, CA. He attended college in Washington at Western Washingto...

Episode 108 - Spring Trip Recap

29 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We just finished up our three day weekend of trips in Monterey Bay! Thank you so much to everyone who attended. We were so fortunate that the weather ...

Episode 107 - Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins

15 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This is our last episode before our April Killer Whale Trips!  We caught up on a few sightings before talking about some of the latest news on Hawai...

Episode 106 - Baja Report

09 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Slater and Adam are back from Baja! We caught up on the long list of sightings we had from Baja, California, and Maui. Then we talked about an article...

Episode 105 - Lessons Learned from Hawaiian Humpbacks

18 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week we talked about updated and new information in regards to humpback whales. Most of this information is from Hawaii, but some of it can be ap...

Episode 104 - Spring Events & Updates

11 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week we took a little time to check in about all the things coming to whalenerds this spring. Our trips are filling quickly for spring whale watc...

Episode 103 - Tracking Marine Mammals From Space

04 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week we talked about technology being applied in new ways to study marine mammals. We covered several articles about using satellite imagery to i...

Episode 102 - Does Any Species Really ”Win” In Climate Change? Climate News Part 3

26 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This is our final episode in our three part series on climate news for our oceans and whales. We talked about how oceanographers are using whaling log...

Episode 101: We Like Ice In Our Oceans - Climate News Part 2

19 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We continued with our theme of climate news for this episode. Unfortunately it was not good news. Our topics mostly focused on how the arctic ecosyste...

Episode 100: Is It Hot In Here? - Climate News Part 1

21 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week's topics were not really about whales, but we had plenty of announcements and whale sightings to catch up on to make up for it! After all of...

Episode 99 - A look back at 2021

31 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Happy New Year! We took a look back at some memorable moments for us in 2021. Whalenerds as a brand and platform has grown so much, thanks to all of ...

Episode 98 - Unusual sightings in California

10 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Slater and Adam had quite the encounter with some less frequently sighted killer whales in Monterey Bay. They shared their experience on the episode t...

Episode 97 - North PACIFIC Right Whales

03 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week we talked about the most endangered of all the right whale species - the North Pacific right whale. There are likely less than 60 of th...

Episode 96 - Indigenous Stories & Perspectives

26 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We hope this episode doesn't actually find you the day after US Thanksgiving - because you're doing something awesome outside. But if it does, take ...

Episode 95 - Sinking Carbon Part 2

19 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This is part two of our two part series that started last week. If you haven't listened to episode 94 - you might find it helpful to go back and list...

Episode 94 - Sinking Carbon Part 1

12 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This is part one of a two part series of episodes this week and next week. We talked about the oil spill that happened in California at the beginning ...

Minisode 11 - Thicker Than Water with Erica Cirino

05 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Remember Erica from Episode 56? She's back and her book is out now! We had a little chat with her about the process of her book and she did a reading ...

Episode 93 - Whalenerds Weekend Recap

25 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Wow. That's the best three letters we can use to describe whalenerds weekend. Our first in person event was INCREDIBLE. We couldn't have asked for bet...

Episode 92 - The Lost Whales

01 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We are back after a week off! Everyone had great sightings since the last time we recorded and the excitement is growing for Whalenerds Weekend in jus...

Episode 91 - Right Whales Wrong Time

17 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

After our host updates from our daily adventures on the water, the nerds take you through the history of right whales. The most rotund of the baleen w...

Episode 90 - Talking Story

10 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week we took a little different strategy than our usual episodes. Instead of talking about news or research we told some stories and talked abou...

Episode 89 - Listen In

03 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week we talked quite a bit about sound, mostly from the frame of humpback whales. We all have been listening to the MBARI hydrophone off and on t...

Episode 88 - Dolphins preying on dolphins

27 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We had a special guest to go along with an incredible sightings report from Monterey Bay. This week Kate Cummings from Blue Ocean Whale Watch joined u...

Episode 87 - Going Ropeless

20 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week we talked about the current state of ropeless fishing gear in the United States. Katlyn had a very interesting encounter on one of her trips...

Episode 86 - Tursipops

06 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week’s theme was bottlenose dolphins! We covered news and recent papers from all over the world. Information about behaviors, communication, re...

Episode 85 - ¿Viva Vaquita?

30 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week had an exciting announcement! Tickets for Whalenerds weekend are now on sale. You can purchase tickets for this event happening in October o...

Episode 84 - Killer Whale papers from around the world

23 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Reunited and it feels so good! Slater, Adam, and Katlyn were all back together for this episode. We spent a lot of time catching up and introducing a ...

Episode 83 - Fathoms with Rebecca Giggs

16 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We had a special guest this week. Rebecca Giggs, author of the book Fathoms: The World in the Whale joined us for this episode. We talked about her bo...

Minisode 10 - Loneliest Whale with Josh Zeman

09 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We were able to chat with Josh Zeman - the journalist and narrator of the new film The Loneliest Whale - The Search for 52 for this week's episode. Th...

Episode 82 - Special Guest Nick Pyenson

02 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week we had the chance to chat with one of our favorite authors Nick Pyenson! We absolutely love his book Spying on Whales. We talked about the b...

Minisode 9 - The Loneliest Whale: The Search for 52

25 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We were granted early screening access to the new film The Loneliest Whale: The Search for 52. This is a story that we have touched on briefly in rece...

Episode 81 - Special Guest Tracie Megumi

17 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week we had artist and conservationist Tracie Megumi as a guest. We chatted with her about her work as an artist, and her work with Dolphin Proje...

Episode 80 - Flues & Blues

11 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 80 - Flues & Blues This week Katlyn and Slater discussed fin whale / blue whale hybrids and blue whale studies from across the Pacific. There ...

Episode 79 - Special Guest John Calambokidis

04 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week we had the chance to chat with John Calambokidis from Cascadia Research Collective. It was quite a long chat, but as you can imagine, we can...

Episode 78 - Chatting Happywhale with Ted Cheeseman

28 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week our special guest was Ted Cheeseman. Ted has worked over the years as a guide, expedition leader, and trip organizer for Cheeseman's Ecology...

Episode 77 - All About Gray Whales

21 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Buckle up! This is a long one. Who knew we could talk about gray whales for over an hour?! In addition to talking about our sightings, we covered a wi...

Episode 76 - News from the North Atlantic

14 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode we caught up on a few weeks of sightings from California for Adam and Slater and sightings from Massachusetts for Katlyn. We also talk...

Episode 75 - Tales from the Gulf of Mexico

30 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week we talked about some news stories from earlier in the spring with sightings of killer whales and a humpback whale in the Gulf of Mexico. We ...

Minisode 8 - Secrets of the Whales Pt. 2

22 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Secrets of the whales airs today! Here is a little teaser from us. Feel free to listen before you watch, but be warned there are one or two small spoi...

Minisode 7 - Secrets of the Whales Interview

14 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This is a special minisode! A little different than our normal routine. We were able to have a zoom call interview with Brian Skerry (photographer and...

Episode 74 - Sperm Whales and Manatees!

03 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode we talked about a marine mammals species that we don’t talk about very often, manatees. We gave a brief overview of all manatee spec...

Episode 73 - Turning Emotions into Assets

24 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week the main topics we talked about were focused on understanding human emotions while creating effective science communication strategies, cons...

Episode 72 - Soundscapes in the Ocean

17 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode we had some ocean news including an article on cuttlefish intelligence, dolphins in the Potomac River and an update on the North Atlan...

Episode 71 - The Anthropause

10 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this Episode we discussed several articles talking about the research and observations that are coming out of the “andropause” that humanity ha...

Episode 70 - Clones, Fossils, Aliens Oh My!

23 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we covered a few news items about cloning efforts with endangered weasels and whale fossils, because they were fun and new developmen...

Episode 69 - What Do Whale Watchers Want? Virtual Events and Whale News

15 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode we covered a report that came out last fall about what whale watchers looked for in a whale watch tour operator, and their contributio...

Episode 68 - Senate Hearings and Scientific Papers

08 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we unpacked a few more scientific papers as a follow-up to our conversations about the southern resident's killer whales. We also tal...

Episode 67 - Update from San Juan Islands

26 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode we checked in with our friends Sara and Jeff from Maya's Legacy on San Juan Island. We talked to them about what whale watching has be...

Episode 66 - What's the cost?

21 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode we talked about some whale news including updates on North Atlantic right whales, manatees, and upcoming conferences. We also talked a...

Episode 65 - Good News and Bad News

12 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Happy new year! We covered a lot of whale news in this episode. Some of it was good news and some of it was less good... We covered right whale news, ...

Episode 64 - Winter Whale Watching and More

29 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This is our last episode of 2020. We answered questions that were sent to us by listeners over the past few weeks. We talked about where are good plac...

Episode 63 - Where humans and whales intersect

18 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This episode was packed with lots of whale news! We had all kinds of updates about right whales, whale calves, whales in new places, a new species of ...

Episode 62 - Reminiscing on the Pacific Northwest

05 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

\This week we talked more about Adam’s background in his whale/marine career. Eric also just took a road trip up to Oregon and Washington. So we wer...

Minisode 6 - Meet Our New Host

30 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We have an exciting announcement! We have officially added a new cohost to the whalenerds team. We want to introduce you to Adam Ernster. He has been ...

Episode 61 - Recent Whale Adventures

21 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we all checked in from up and down the California coast and Delaware! Katlyn is working a boat delivery on the East Coast at the mome...