🌐 Hopkins Marine Station: https://hopkinsmarinestation.stanford.edu

🌐 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-barkowski-a7b824131/

Title: Whales Beneath The Waves: Insights into Whale Behavior from Video Camera Tags

Synopsis: Have you ever wondered what a whale might be doing when they dive beneath the surface of the ocean? Come learn what the whales are up to as we explore different behaviors, from multiple species of cetacean, documented on biologgers that researchers at Stanford, UC Santa Cruz, and Cascadia Research Collective use to study these animals. 

Bio: Jack is a PhD student at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station in Jeremy Goldbogen's lab and a research biologist with Cascadia Research Collective. He earned his M.S. in Marine Science from Moss Landing Marine Labs at San Jose State University and his B.S. in environmental science from UMass Boston. He has been fortunate to do marine mammal research across a range of species in America, Europe, Africa, and Antarctica with a focus on behavioral ecology. His PhD research will focus on blue whale foraging ecology be leveraging different technologies to collect multiple data streams

Sunflower Star Laboratory, Conservation Project Manager, Cofounder

🌐 Sunflower Star Laboratory: https://www.sunflowerstarlab.org/

Title: Shooting for the Stars: Sunflower Star Laboratory’s community-based approach to sunflower sea star conservation and kelp forest recovery.

Synopsis: In 2013, the sunflower sea star (Pycnopodia helianthoides) or 'pycno' for short, was devastated by an ocean epidemic known as Sea Star Wasting Disease that spread across the entire Pacific coast of North America. Once common, this striking—and often overlooked—predator has not been seen south of the Golden Gate since 2018, and is listed as critically endangered by the IUCN. The domino effect of the 2014–2016 marine heatwave known as “the Blob,” the loss of  sea otters and pycnos, allowed sea urchins to overgraze kelp forests, creating widespread urchin barrens and cascading biodiversity loss, shutting down red abalone and red urchin fisheries, most notably in Northern California.

Sunflower Star Laboratory, our nonprofit in Moss Landing, is dedicated to "Restore the Sunflower Star, Save the Kelp". The dedicated staff and volunteers collaborate with passionate experts in all aspects of marine invertebrate conservation to advance the best ideas and protocols to raise juvenile sunflower stars in recirculating culture systems, and conduct field experiments to study their survival, behavior, and ecosystem impact. By combining hands-on restoration with community involvement, SSL offers Monterey Bay residents a unique opportunity to help restore one of our ocean’s most important—and dramatic—keystone predators.

Bio: Ashley is a zoologist with an MS in Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences from the University of Florida, where she researched the feasibility of sunflower sea star research and restoration through public aquarium engagement. She spent 12 years as a public aquarium professional, developing a passion for aquaculture and restoration, notably with Caribbean coral and California white abalone restoration initiatives. At Sunflower Star Laboratory, Ashley applies her combined aquarium and field research expertise to restore sunflower sea stars, lead population management under human care, and collaborate with a network of non-profit, academic, and public partners to develop and implement applied restoration tools.

Stephanie Marcos, Operations Manager, Marine Life Studies

🌐 Marine Life Studies:https://www.marinelifestudies.org

🌐 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-marcos-3549a49a/

Title: Whale Entanglement: Risks, Responses, and Prevention.

Synopsis: Explore the operations of the Whale Entanglement Team (WET)®, including the detailed process of a whale rescue, the challenges faced, and technological advancements in the field. This work is conducted under the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act, through a permit issued to the Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program. 

Bio: Stephanie graduated with a Marine Science Degree from CSU Monterey Bay. She oversees all Marine Life Studies' programs including the Research Scientist Program, Ocean Literacy Education Program, and Whale Entanglement Team (WET)®. As the youngest, level 3 female whale rescue responder, she trains and helps coordinate entanglement responses and is a Co-Investigator under a NOAA Endangered Species permit to conduct research on whales and dolphins in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

Adam Ratner, Director of Conservation Engagement at The Marine Mammal Center and Board Member, National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation, NNOCCI

🌐 The Marine Mammal Center: https://www.marinemammalcenter.org/

🌐 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-r-ratner/

Title: Behind the Bark: 50 Years of Saving Seals and Sea Lions

‍Synopsis: The Marine Mammal Center is a leader in marine mammal health, science and conservation, and is the largest marine mammal hospital in the world.  The Center rescues between 700-2,000 sick and injured seals, sea lions and other marine mammals each year from over 600 miles of California coast and the Big Island of Hawai’i.  Seals and sea lions serve as sentinels of the sea, providing a glimpse into the health of the ocean and potential consequences of our own actions on land.  Join us to hear about the latest stories of our patients, new research on marine mammal health, and what actions we can take as individuals and communities to help protect marine mammals and ourselves for generations to come.

‍Bio: Adam Ratner has been with The Marine Mammal Center for over 15 years. As the Director of Conservation Engagement, he uses the stories of individual patients that are rescued by the Center to connect people to issues facing mammals and people alike.  He provides inspiration and empowerment that allows others to see themselves as the heroes of their community and environment.

‍Adam serves on the Board of Directors of the National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation, one of the largest climate change communication networks in the world.  Earlier in his career, Adam was named one of the 30 under 30 Game Changers for the Planet by the North American Association for Environmental Education.

For a more comprehensive bio, please see: Adam Ratner at The Marine Mammal Center

Joh Ryan, Senior Research Specialist at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI)

🌐 MBARI: https://www.mbari.org/

🌐 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-ryan-a679a7139/

Title: Creating Safer Habitat for Whales in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary

Synopsis: A primary threat to the recovery of endangered whale populations is mortality resulting from collisions with large ships.  Collision risk is shaped by intersections between the habitat occupancy of whales, the patterns of shipping activity, and active conservation measures.  This presentation will examine these vital intersections in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

Bio: John Ryan is a biological oceanographer with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.  His collaborative research explores a variety of oceanic life forms, from microscopic plankton to gigantic whales, and the ecosystem processes that shape their lives.

MORE FUN:‍ ‍JOhn Ryan's presentation will be followed by a performance by John Ryan and Lucy Zhang

Title: Sonata in Whale Major

Synopsis: The highly structured, rhythmic sequences of sound produced by humpback whales were first scientifically described as song more than a half century ago.  They have since been scientifically recognized as shared and transmitted culture.  Examining the structures of humpback whale songs recorded in Monterey Bay, Lucy Zhang recognized remarkable similarities to structures found in multiple types of human musical composition.  This presentation will explore how music as a universal language may reach deeper than we thought.

Brief Bios: John Ryan is a biological oceanographer with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.  Lucy Zhang is a high school student, musician, and young researcher

Giovanna Sainz, Research Technician, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

🌐 MBARI: https://www.mbari.org/

Title: Where gaming meets community science to explore our ocean

Synopsis:‍ ‍Fathom Verse, a mobile game designed to inspire a new wave of ocean explorers, teaches casual gamers about ocean life while improving the algorithms we use to accelerate discovery (FathomNet). The deep sea is the largest habitable ecosystem on the planet and remains one of the least explored. Very little is known about deep sea inhabitants, their behavior, and the limits and drivers for their survival. Researchers estimate that anywhere between 30-60% of life in the ocean is unknown to science, and these gaps in knowledge need to be filled to inform exploitative activities like aquaculture, offshore wind, and deep-sea mining. In order to fully explore our ocean and effectively steward the life that lives there, we need to increase our capacity for biological observations. State-of-the-art approaches in automation cannot solve this problem alone, and we must aggressively build an integrated community of educators, taxonomists, scientists, and enthusiasts to enable effective collaboration between humans and algorithms. FathomVerse, a mobile game designed to inspire a new wave of ocean explorers, teaches casual gamers about ocean life while improving machine learning models and expanding annotated datasets (FathomNet). Of the three billion gamers worldwide, up to 70% say they care about the environment; FathomVerse taps into this engaged community with innovative gameplay and rich graphics that draw players into the captivating world of underwater imagery and cutting-edge ocean science. Through FathomVerse, we hope to activate audiences in high school and up, providing social engagement and workforce education, with the goal of increasing public awareness and inspiring empathy for ocean life.

Bio: Giovanna Sainz is a Research Technician at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) working in the Video lab and the Bioinspiration lab. With her marine biology background, she specializes in analyzing deep-sea footage collected by remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and advancing machine learning approaches for analyzing ocean imagery. She is also a part of the FathomNet team, which developed FathomVerse, the game.

Matthew S. Savoca, Ph.D., Research Scientist, ‍California Marine Sanctuary Foundation, Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University

🌐California Marine Sanctuary Foundation: ‍ ‍https://www.californiamsf.org/

‍Title: From Watershed to Whales: Tracking microplastics from land to sea in Monterey Bay

Synopsis: Plastic pollution has become one of the defining environmental challenges of our time. Tiny fragments known as microplastics - pieces smaller than a grain of rice - are now found almost everywhere in the ocean. But how do these particles travel from our cities and rivers into the marine food web, and eventually into the bodies of ocean wildlife? For the past decade, I have dedicated much of my research trying to answer these questions. Between 2023 and 2025 we tracked microplastics from inland rivers to the coastal waters of Monterey Bay, one of the most biologically rich marine ecosystems in the world. We collected samples from four major rivers, beach sands, surface seawater, and marine life including small fish, krill, and blue whales. After processing more than 15,000 liters of water and 1,500 liters of sand, we identified roughly 25,000 individual microplastic particles. Beaches turned out to be hotspots, with concentrations about thirty times higher than nearby waters. Early results show that these tiny plastics are already moving up the food chain and reaching the largest animals on Earth: blue whales. By following the journey of microplastics from land to sea, our work reveals how human activities on land shape the health of ocean ecosystems, and highlights how and where solutions can make the biggest difference.

Bio: ‍Research Associate at the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University and a Principal Investigator at the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation. He completed his Ph.D. in Ecology at the University of California, Davis in 2017, where he studied why marine animals mistake plastic debris for prey items. More recently, he has investigated how microplastics flow through pelagic food webs, using Monterey Bay, California as a model ecosystem to study these processes. His work has been covered by NPR, The BBC, and The New York Times, among other outlets. Matthew is also an active science communicator and has given a TEDx talk, spoken with California State Legislators about plastic pollution, and has written numerous popular science articles for venues including The Washington Post, The Marine Biologist magazine, and The Conversation. He serves, or has served, on international expert groups convened by The Environmental Defense Fund, The International Whaling Commission, and the North Pacific Marine Science Organization, which presented him their Early Career Scientist Award in 2022.

Director of Fishery Innovation and Senior Scientist

California Campaign Director & Senior Scientist, Oceana

🌐Oceana: https://oceana.org/

Title: Panel Discussion: Collaborations to Develop Whale-Safe Pop-Up Gear to Catch Dungeness Crab: A Win-Win for Whales and Local Fishermen. Followed by audience Q and A

PANEL:

• Kim Sawicki, Sustainable Seas Technologies, Researcher

• Greg Wells, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation – Ropeless Gear Library

• Brand Little, Commercial Dungeness Crab Fisherman

• Stephen Melz, Commercial Dungeness Crab Fisherman

• Joanna Grebel, California Department of Fish and Wildlife

• Marco Flagg, Desert Star Systems

• Geoff Shester, Oceana (Moderator)

Synopsis: This panel discussion moderated by Dr. Geoff Shester (Oceana) will highlight some of the local heroes that have worked together to develop new pop-up gear that eliminates the ropes and buoys that cause whale entanglements. After several years of experimental testing, the new gear is officially approved for use this spring for the first time ever, returning a whale-safe spring Dungeness crab fishery to Monterey Bay. This interactive panel will feature local fishermen, gear innovators, fishery managers, and conservation organizations that helped make this dream a reality.

Bio: Dr. Geoff Shester is Oceana’s California Fishery Innovation Director and Senior Scientist based in Oceana’s Monterey, California office. Oceana is the largest international marine conservation non-profit organization. Geoff got his undergraduate degree at UC Santa Cruz and his Ph.D. at Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University. He worked on the Exxon Valdez oil spill restoration in Alaska and was the Senior Science Manager for the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program. At Oceana, he has led at-sea scientific expeditions, helped pass California legislation to end the shark fin trade and harmful gillnets, helped protect over one million square miles of ocean habitats from bottom trawl fishing, and helped enact fishing regulations to protect sardines, anchovies, krill, and other forage species. Geoff currently serves on the California Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group and the West Coast Take Reduction Team charged with reducing whale entanglements in fishing gear. He has been working on collaborative research projects with local fishermen since 2018 to develop new whale-safe pop-up fishing methods.

Email: gshester@oceana.org

Instagram: @GeoffShester

Presentation by Lucy Zhang, Daniel Zhang, and John Ryan.

Title: Sonata in Whale Major

Synopsis: The highly structured, rhythmic sequences of sound produced by humpback whales were first scientifically described as song more than a half century ago.  They have since been scientifically recognized as shared and transmitted culture.  Examining the structures of humpback whale songs recorded in Monterey Bay, Lucy Zhang recognized remarkable similarities to structures found in multiple types of human musical composition.  This presentation will explore how music as a universal language may reach deeper than we thought.