Whale Museum Programs:

Soundwatch Boater Education Program

The Whale Hotline

Bottomfish Recovery Program

Marine Mammal Stranding Network

Marine Naturalist Training

Orca Adoption Program

Conservation Research at The Whale Museum
According to The Whale Museum’s mission statement, scientific research is one of the two pillars (next to education) on which our conservation efforts rest. Even before conservation biology became a respectable science, The Whale Museum (TWM) always supported, or instigated, and frequently performed studies that provided essential knowledge to promote stewardship of whales and the Salish Sea ecosystem.

In the following, you can find a list of recent peer-reviewed publications (2001 – 2012) in which an author was affiliated to TWM or where the authors have acknowledged the collaboration of TWM or one of its programs. Beyond this list there are numerous reports etc. (aka ‘gray literature’) that are testament to the ongoing conservation efforts of TWM through scientific research.

We are interested in updating this depository frequently and would appreciate any additional publication we may have missed, including those between 1976 and 2000.

For more information, contact Dr. Stefan Brager, Reserach Director/Curator by email or phone 360-378-4710 ext. 25.

A bit of history:

Under the auspices of The Whale Museum's Fellowship Program 32 independent investigators and almost 100 interns have been sponsored over the years, as well as four bachelor theses, five masters theses, and four doctoral theses in marine mammal conservation.

In one year, The Whale Museum sponsored six Interns, four Visiting Scientists, and former Research Curator Dr. Richard Osborne's doctoral research at the University of Victoria. The Visiting Scientists included: 1) Dr. David Bain from the University of Washington; 2) Dr. Robert Otis from Ripon College who has been studying whale/boat interactions at Lime Kiln State Park over the last twenty years; 3) Patrick Miller, a doctoral student at MIT & Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who also worked on orca acoustics in collaboration with Dr. Bain; and 4) Jean Olsen, a graduate of the master's program at Huxley College, Western Washington University, who plotted Whale Hotline sighting data using a GIS (Geographical Information System) in collaboration with Richard Osborne.

Orcas in Resting Formation

Welcome to The Whale Museum

The Whale Museum is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization registered with the Secretary of State in Olympia, Washington. b