In this interactive “Office Hour” chat, three experts on marine mammal entanglement and disentanglement will take your questions:
* Scott Landry is director of the Marine Animal Entanglement Response team at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies in Massachusetts. Over the past 30 years, the Center has freed more than 100 large whales from life-threatening entanglements, as well as dozens of smaller cetaceans, seals, and other marine animals.
* Lauri Jemison is a biologist who has studied pinnipeds in Alaska for the past 25 years, and worked since 1997 with the Alaska Department of Fish & Game’s Marine Mammal Program. She has studied sea lion entanglement in marine debris and ingestion of fishing gear for the past decade. Packing bands, used in the shipping and fishing industries, and large rubber bands, used for many purposes including holding crab pots closed, are two of the most common neck-entangling materials.
* Sue Goodglick is a biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Steller sea lion research program and member of the multi-agency Pinniped Entanglement Group. As part of her job, she helps develop and disseminate outreach materials for the group's “Lose the Loop!” campaign, an effort to help reduce animal entanglements in marine debris.
About the Office Hour format:This Office Hour will take place at
www.marinedebris.info, the knowledge-sharing forum for marine debris researchers, managers, and activists.
The event will be a live interactive chat conducted by typing and reading text. There is no audio component. Repeat: there will be no sound - this is not a webinar.