Alaska Story Project
Conversations with authors, scientists, artists, fisher-poets, and a colorful cast of characters who are both knowledgeable and passionate about Alaska.
Alaska Story Project
ASP 10, whale biologist, Dr. Fred Sharpe
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Host Dan Kowalski
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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33 years of behavioral research with Alaska's Humpback Whales.
- Formative years as a whale biologist.
- The remarkable characteristics of Humpback Whales.
- Songs of the Humpback Whale.
- Whale brains, four times as large as a human brain.
- Spindle neurons and social behavior.
- Whale communication, ocean acoustics.
- "Whale internet".
- Concerns: Ocean noise, ships, military, seismic testing, entanglements.
- Warm water anomaly: "the blob".
- Whales and humans: similarities in social behaviors, cooperation, altruism.
- Whale health vigilance: promising research tools and practices.
- Whale vocalizations, structure & implications for what constitutes intelligence.