Presented by David Anderson and Laurie Shuster - Cascadia Research Collective

We will discuss the various small cetaceans you are likely to encounter in the Salish Sea, and our work monitoring the populations and studying their behavior. This includes the return of harbor porpoise to the Puget Sound, with a simultaneous reduction in Dall's porpoise sightings, as well as the recent increase in sightings of bottlenose and common dolphins.

David Anderson is a research biologist with Cascadia Research. He specializes in the analysis of satellite tag data for the Hawaiian odontocete program. He also has an intense interest in the marine mammals in our local waters, that began before he returned to school to become a marine biologist. Along with Laurie Shuster, he conducts year-round marine mammal surveys in the South Puget Sound, and collects dolphin sighting reports from many community/citizen scientists.

Laurie Shuster is a Research Associate with Cascadia Research. She conducts year-round boat based field observations of marine mammals in South Puget Sound along with David Anderson of Cascadia Research. Laurie is also a tenured professor and librarian at Pierce College in Lakewood, WA.