Printed on August 27, 2007
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Kingdom of the Blue Whale: Interview with Scientist Bruce Mate
Dr. Bruce Mate is the director of the Marine Mammal Institute, as well as a tenured professor of fisheries and wildlife and an adjunct professor of oceanography at Oregon State University. He has studied marine wildlife for more than 40 years. Dr. Mate pioneered the development of satellite-monitored radio telemetry for tracking marine mammals, especially whales. He has tagged and tracked a wide variety of marine mammals, including harbor seals, pilot whales, gray whales, right whales, bowhead whales, humpback whales, sperm whales, fin whales and blue whales. His groundbreaking research determined the migratory routes of sea lions along the West Coast of the United States and revealed the presence of heavy metals and organochlorines in seals. His recent work has focused on using tracking data to identify the critical habitats where endangered whales breed, feed and calve. His work promotes marine mammal conservation and contributes to developing best practices for wildlife management.
Nat Geo: When did you know you wanted to study whales? What drew you to blue whales in particular?
Bruce Mate: I worked with seals and sea lions for about 10 years and then I started focusing on whale work in 1978. I developed an attachment mechanism and tagged my first whale, a grey whale, in 1979, using conventional radio tags (line-of-sight technology). I pioneered the development of satellite-monitored tag technology. We tried it first in 1986 on humpback whales that spent summers feeding close to shore, but started in 1993 using it on blue whales that move much further offshore.
Nat Geo: How long did it take to organize this expedition, and how was the crew assembled?
Bruce Mate: I've wanted to do this for 14 years. Once National Geographic came through with critical assistance, it took only about four months to pull together a two-part expedition. Part one was in September 2007 to get the initial tags on the animals off the coast of California. Then we tracked them by satellite and three months later, made an expedition to the Costa Rica Dome to relocate them.
The trip grew out of a natural collaboration between two other researchers in the specialty -- John Calambokidis and Erin Oleson -- and me. John and Erin are experts in whale photo ID, suction cup tagging and acoustics, while my group's expertise is in satellite tagging and tracking.
Nat Geo: When did you know you wanted to study whales? What drew you to blue whales in particular?
Bruce Mate: I worked with seals and sea lions for about 10 years and then I started focusing on whale work in 1978. I developed an attachment mechanism and tagged my first whale, a grey whale, in 1979, using conventional radio tags (line-of-sight technology). I pioneered the development of satellite-monitored tag technology. We tried it first in 1986 on humpback whales that spent summers feeding close to shore, but started in 1993 using it on blue whales that move much further offshore. Nat Geo: How long did it take to organize this expedition, and how was the crew assembled?
Bruce Mate: I've wanted to do this for 14 years. Once National Geographic came through with critical assistance, it took only about four months to pull together a two-part expedition. Part one was in September 2007 to get the initial tags on the animals off the coast of California. Then we tracked them by satellite and three months later, made an expedition to the Costa Rica Dome to relocate them.
The trip grew out of a natural collaboration between two other researchers in the specialty -- John Calambokidis and Erin Oleson -- and me. John and Erin are experts in whale photo ID, suction cup tagging and acoustics, while my group's expertise is in satellite tagging and tracking.
Nat Geo: How far did you travel and how were locations chosen?
Bruce Mate: We were off the coast of California for part one of the expedition (to tag the whales), and then we followed them south. We tracked them down to the Costa Rica Dome, but we were never actually in Costa Rica. The Dome is an area of the Pacific Ocean about 500 to 800 miles west of Costa Rica, really closer to Acapulco, Mexico. The spot is hard to find because its actual location changes every year, and that may have saved the whales from whalers, who could not relocate this wintering area from year to year. We had an advantage with satellite tools that gave us vital information on water temperature, so we could identify this upwelling area.
Nat Geo: What makes this expedition different from your other research trips?
Bruce Mate: We had several specific goals on this trip: to find out if the blue whales were feeding, if there was breeding activity and if there were calves there. And additionally, we wanted to see if the Costa Rica Dome is an aggregation area for multiple feeding populations. We were excited to find evidence confirming all four aspects!
Nat Geo: What makes this expedition different from your other research trips?
Bruce Mate: We had several specific goals on this trip: to find out if the blue whales were feeding, if there was breeding activity and if there were calves there. And additionally, we wanted to see if the Costa Rica Dome is an aggregation area for multiple feeding populations. We were excited to find evidence confirming all four aspects!
Nat Geo: What were the scientific "firsts" your team discovered?
Bruce Mate: We confirmed that mating, calving and feeding all take place at the Costa Rica Dome. We also determined that some of the animals we saw at the Costa Rica Dome could not be matched to Calambokidis' photo-ID catalog from his California studies, which suggests that some of the animals we saw migrated there from somewhere else.
Bruce Mate: We were off the coast of California for part one of the expedition (to tag the whales), and then we followed them south. We tracked them down to the Costa Rica Dome, but we were never actually in Costa Rica. The Dome is an area of the Pacific Ocean about 500 to 800 miles west of Costa Rica, really closer to Acapulco, Mexico. The spot is hard to find because its actual location changes every year, and that may have saved the whales from whalers, who could not relocate this wintering area from year to year. We had an advantage with satellite tools that gave us vital information on water temperature, so we could identify this upwelling area.
Nat Geo: What makes this expedition different from your other research trips?
Bruce Mate: We had several specific goals on this trip: to find out if the blue whales were feeding, if there was breeding activity and if there were calves there. And additionally, we wanted to see if the Costa Rica Dome is an aggregation area for multiple feeding populations. We were excited to find evidence confirming all four aspects!
Nat Geo: What makes this expedition different from your other research trips?
Bruce Mate: We had several specific goals on this trip: to find out if the blue whales were feeding, if there was breeding activity and if there were calves there. And additionally, we wanted to see if the Costa Rica Dome is an aggregation area for multiple feeding populations. We were excited to find evidence confirming all four aspects!
Nat Geo: What were the scientific "firsts" your team discovered?
Bruce Mate: We confirmed that mating, calving and feeding all take place at the Costa Rica Dome. We also determined that some of the animals we saw at the Costa Rica Dome could not be matched to Calambokidis' photo-ID catalog from his California studies, which suggests that some of the animals we saw migrated there from somewhere else.
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10 Comments
Thank you for a wonderful show and giving me hope for the future of a magnificent animal! Keep up the wonderful work!
please tell me that with our technology we can come up with some kind of warning tool for our sea creatures to stay away from the ships that they collide with when they see it. something to put under the ships like a siren or something of that nature
This was an amazing show. You have synthesized information for the public on blue whales in an engaging and wonderful way!
Really enjoyed the show. Did I miss something or did two scientists fly around the world to find illegally killed whales, only to trace the search back to a different group of scientists who had killed 300 Fin whales for research? Wish they would have explored that further.
So beautiful and wondrous.
thank you
yes,I do hope this film and article will help us reduce the ship kill rate of blues along the west coast-.alarms or change routes or slow down
& I am concerned about pirate whalers using this info to track and hunt blues off Costa Rica . available safeguards? -satellite?
I am truly sorry for not being able to view this program, I do not have access to the Nat.Geo.Chan. I will however be purchasing the DVD. I am a hugh fan of the Blue Whale and love all the facts I have been collecting from this sight. Thank you
I have waited for the Blue Whale show and although very nicely done I do have a question. Did anybody think to bring an underwater camera?
Thank you for the episode on the Great Blue Whale! I Have loved this fellow since I was a little boy. I actually got goose flesh when I saw the video on the new Baby Blue!!! I hope and pray you all will see fit to produce more shows featuring the greatest animal that has ever and will ever exist on this planet! Hide and watch, soon we will discover how to communicate with them and just imagine what they will have to say to us?! Mike
I recorded this on DVR and was finally able to watch it last night, or I should say try to watch it. I must preface my comments by stating that I have been the biggest fan of wildlife documentaries since childhood. I have the greatest admiration for all those tireless people who have dedicated weeks and months, sometimes even years of their lives, just to bring the wonders of Mother Nature into my living room. My appreciation is boundless. I was greatly disappointed and saddened that such a monumental documentary as this was so marred in post production by the soundtrack. Gratuitous "tribal" sounding music mixed too loud, so as to compete with the dialogue of the narrator and all other voices, human and otherwise, as well as any sounds of Nature. I have admired Tom Selleck as an actor, but not every voice is suited to narration, his is one of them. The tone of his voice is not right and every "s" is an annoying almost lispy "ssssssss", an obvious disqualification for narration. These things are important and I wonder where the brilliant creative minds and ears were during the editing/mixing process. The soundtrack should be completely redone with a different narrator and with the music significantly softer and not omnipresent. It's a real shame...
Life Cycle of a Whale
Great Post! Very informative and a great read. I saw this site during my browsing and think it may be relevant www.whales.org.za .Keep up the great posts!
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