Dr. Sue E. Moore is the 2026 recipient of the Kenneth S. Norris Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Marine Mammalogy, recognizing her outstanding career and lasting contributions to marine mammal science. The Society for Marine Mammalogy established the Kenneth S. Norris Lifetime Achievement Award in honor of the Society’s founding President Dr. Kenneth S. Norris. The award recognizes […]
Dr. Briana Abrahms had the privilege to give a keynote speech at the International Parliamentary Roundtable on Human-Wildlife Coexistence (HWC) in Gaborone, Botswana on January 19, 2026. The roundtable included parliamentarians from Botswana, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Romania, Sri Lanka, Sweden, and Zambia. Her presentation provided a global overview of how and why climate change is increasing
Next up in our Meet CES series is Kyra McClelland! Kyra is the newest graduate student in the Abrahms Lab. Read on to learn more about Kyra’s inspiration to become a marine biologist and a very memorable field work moment! How are you liking Seattle and the UW campus?I really love Seattle, and the UW campus is beautiful. I am
Written on January 20, 2026 by Chloe Rabinowitz; edited by Kalyna Durbak Our field work crew has been here for a while! Sofia Denkovski, Anna Testorf, and Chloe Rabinowitz arrived in Punta Tombo on January 6th, followed by Dr. Dee Boersma on the 12th. We have been getting well acquainted with all our active research nests and have been progressing
We hope that most people are aware that penguins exist (we hope!), but are you aware of each penguin species’ IUCN Red List status? Established in 1964, the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species has evolved to become the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global extinction risk status of animal, fungus and plant
Written by Meredith Honig and Bryn Carter The austral spring field season at Punta Tombo in 2025 wrapped up on a high note as chicks continued to grow and more juveniles and non-breeding adults started showing up in larger numbers on the beaches. This would be the first time the juveniles and non-breeding adults were back from being at sea
The Abrahms Lab has a new PhD student – Kyra McClelland! Kyra will be researching climate impacts and population-level adaptability on whooping cranes (Grus americana). Here’s a bit more about the Center’s newest member: Kyra is broadly interested in the intersection of animal behavior, habitat use, movement, and anthropogenic impacts. She is particularly interested in the dynamics between sociality in
As the year-end approaches, we would like to thank all the donors who have responded to our efforts to raise $3 million to fund critical research. Your contributions to the Center for Ecosystem Sentinel Research Fund will support our travel to Punta Tombo, all of the equipment and tags we use at Punta Tombo, and allow us to continue our
Be sure to check out Eric Wagner’s newest essay for The Last Word On Nothing called Saint Rock! Featured photo credit: Eric Wagner
Animal-worn sensors, especially accelerometers, are increasingly used with machine-learning models to identify animal behaviors. These tools often struggle with uneven training data, uncertain predictions, and noisy results. To address these issues, Dr. Rafiq and Dr. Abrahms, with their collaborators, developed an open-source method that combines machine learning and statistical techniques to improve behavior classification and to provide “prediction sets,” which
Written by Dr. Eric Wagner Starting the season – stake survey and tag hunting In late October, Dr. Eric Wagner and Abrahms graduate student Meredith Honig traveled to Argentina to start the 2025-2026 field season. After getting a provisional permit from the provincial authorities, they arrived at Punta Tombo on October 29. They then spent the next two days completing
Join Dr. Dee Boersma, Dr. Sue Moore, and Dr. Nigella Hillgarth on a cruise to Baffin Island! This will be an expedition from Greenland to the Canadian Arctic and into the Northwest Passages, from September 1 – 18, 2026. Sail in the same waters as Roald Amundsen and his crew of six during their 1903-06 successful navigation of the Northwest
Marine megafauna face many human-caused threats, so understanding how vulnerable each species is to these dangers is essential. In this study, researchers assessed how 256 large marine species respond to 23 different threats, ranging from specific fishing gear to climate impacts and coastal disturbances. They found that 70 species had high vulnerability (v > 0.778 out of 1) to at
Gray whales in the eastern North Pacific have been shrinking in number for the past six years — and the decline seems to be getting worse. This is surprising because gray whales had made a big comeback after being hunted almost to extinction. But now, warming oceans are changing their Arctic feeding areas. Less sea ice and shifts in ocean
