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Breaching Extinction

by Erica Wirth

Breaching Extinction is an investigative podcast evaluating the complexities of the declining Southern Resident Killer Whale population in an effort to better understand the trials they currently face, and find solutions through conversation and connection.

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Episodes

  1. Podcast FINale!!

    This is the final episode of Breaching Extinction (for now). This has been an amazing journey. Thank you to everyone who's been a part of it!

  2. 128. North Atlantic Killer Whale Diets

    In this episode, Erica chatted with Anaïs Remili researcher and founder of Whale Scientist about her recent publication New killer whale research: North Atlantic killer whale diets revealed in unprecedented detail

  3. 127. Free Willard

    This week Erica chatted with the one and only Orca Man aka Fred Denisco about his obsession with the movie Free Willy and some behind-the-scenes details about the film

  4. 126. Microplastics in Sea Lion Scat

    This week Erica chatted with researcher, José Ángel Ortega Borchardt about his recent publication Microplastics in scats of California sea lions on the Gulf of California.

  5. 125. Using Consumer Drones to Conduct Research

    This week Erica chatted with biologist Helena Costa about her recent publication Using a consumer drone for the collection of humpback whale blow samples during the Arctic polar . Helena compares the uses of different commercial drones for the analysis of cetacean blows.

  6. 124. Fly With Care

    In this week's episode, Erica chatted with researcher Jaclyn Aubin from the Department of Integrative Biology, Windsor, Ontario, Canada about her recent publication Fly with care: belugas show evasive responses to low altitude drone flights. Protection, energetic assistance, or social perks: How…

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  7. 123. Can Whales Help Fight Climate Change?

    This week Erica chatted with researchers Heidi Pearson from the University of Alaska SE about her recent publication Whales in the carbon cycle: can recovery remove carbon dioxide?

  8. 122. SRKW's in Monterey and Life Updates

    This is the first episode of season 5! Erica and Madi sit down and chat about the future of the podcast and the southern residents using the full extent of their home range. If you are interested working with Breaching Extinction please send us an instagram DM or email Erica at...

  9. 0.46 Lolita

    In this week's porpisode Liam, Madi and Erica discuss Lolita a captive Southern Resident Killer Whale

  10. 0.45 Grandpas Knob

    In this week's porpisode Madi, Liam and Erica talk about the history of wind farms and their current impact on cetaceans Sources: Climate Change Impacting Right Whales Episode Blue Whale Mom Calf Pair Response to Vessel Episode

  11. 121. Exploring Emerging Infectious Diseases

    This week Erica chatted with Aricia Duarte-Benvenuto, a PhD student at the Patologia Experimental e Comparada graduate Program of the School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science – University of São Paulo, Brazil about emerging infections diseases in the amazon river dolphin. Sources:...

  12. 0.45 420 Blaze Animals Getting High

    In this week's porpisode Madi educates intoxicated Erica and Liam about a variety of animals that get high ;)

  13. 120. Antarctic Fin Whale Distribution

    This week Erica chatted with Fin Whale Researcher Sacha Viquerat about his recent publication Identifying seasonal distribution patterns of fin whales across the Scotia Sea and the Antarctic Peninsula region using a novel approach combining habitat suitability models and ensemble learning…

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  14. 119. Humpback Whale Song Cultural Transmission

    In this week's episode Erica chatted with biologist Josephine Schulze about her recent publication, Humpback whale song revolutions continue to spread from the central into the eastern South Pacific.

  15. 0.43 Frech Polynesian Whales and Things

    In this week's propside Erica, Madi, and Liam discuss Madi's recent trip to French Polynesia among other things. Sources https://www.int-res.com/articles/meps2007/330/m330p257.pdf http://seaturtle.org/library/GannierA_2004_AquatMamm.pdf

  16. 118. Blue Whale Mom Calf Pair response to Vessel

    In this week's episode, Erica chatted with Mari Smultea about her recent publication Blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) mother-calf pair behavioral response to vessel in the Southern California Bight. Aquatic Mammals. Resources: Smuleta Sciences Mother Calf Whale Nursing and Other Behavior Sperm...

  17. 117. Science Meets Pop Culture

    In this week's episode Madi, Liam, and Erica discuss genetic disorders that could impact the pigmentation of cetacean skin Sources: Fifty Shades of Gray: The First Leucistic Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) Sighting off the Cedar Keys, Florida, Gulf of Mexico

  18. 0.42 Whale Trends?

    Salmon and Mola hats? Could this possibly be a trend for whales? Madi, Liam and Erica dive into potential orca trends in porpsiode!

  19. 116. Deconstructing Depredation

    This week Erica chatted with Italian researcher Giovanni Bearzi at Dolphin Biology and Conservation, Italy about his recent publication Marine mammals foraging around fishing gear or preying upon fishing catch and bait: it may not be “depredation”. They discuss the true meaning of the word...

  20. 115. Climate Change Impacting Right Whales

    This week Erica chatted with Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina Erin Meyer-Gutbrod about her recent publication Redefining North Atlantic right whale habitat-use patterns under climate change.

  21. 0.41 Holy Guaca-mola

    This week Madi and Erica did a porpisode briefly discussing the Ocean Sunfish

  22. 114. What the hec is going on with hectors dolphin?

    In this week's episode, Erica chatted with William Carome, researcher at the New Zeland Whale and Dolphin Trust about his recent publication A long-term shift in the summer distribution of Hector’sdolphins is correlated with an increase in cruise ship tourism. Sources: New Zeland Whale and…

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  23. 113. Science, Skepticism and Truth

    In this episode Erica, Liam and Madi discuss what credible science looks like and how to find legit sources for information. Resources: Science Council What Makes Science Science (NPR) Live Science Understanding Science UC Berkley

  24. 112. Fin Whale Residency

    In this week's episode, Erica chatted with Erin Falcone, Biologist at Marine Ecology and Telemetry Research about her most recent publication Movements and residency of fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) in the California Current System.

  25. 0.40 Stellar Sea Cow

    Fist porpsiode with Madison Bashford talking about Stellar Sea Cows :)

  26. 111. Jingle Bells

    This week Erica chatted with Katie Kowarski Research Scientist at JASCO Applied Sciences about the last chapter of her thesis: Seasonal song ontogeny in western North Atlantic humpback whales: drawing parallels with songbirds. Katie shares her unexpected findings on humpback whale acoustics is…

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  27. 110. Vulnerabili(tea)

    In this week's episode, we introduced Madison Basford our new porpisode cohost. Erica and Madi had an authentic and vulnerable conversation about overcoming the trials and tribulations of life and the importance of being healthy in order to have a positive impact on the world. WARNING: This…

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  28. 109. Fishing and Whale Watching in Monterey Bay

    This week Erica chatted with Joey Stagnaro a, Santa Cruz local who has been working on the Monterey Bay fishing and whale watching since he was 6 years old. Joey shares a bit of his life story and the changes he has seen though out his time on the bay.

  29. 0.39 It's Giving Goodbye

    In our final porpisode with Kendra, we finish the last four chapters of Listening to Whales by Alexandra Morton. We highly recommend this book to anyone interested in whales or a story about perseverance. Warning: For some reason, we started talking about explicit around minute 28, so if you…

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  30. 108. Merging for Dolphin Societies

    In this week's episode, Erica chatted with Nicole Danaher-Garcia researcher from the Dolphin Communication Project about her recent publication, The partial merger of two dolphin societies. The merging of social groups is rarely seen in terrestrial animals, making this finding rather remarkable…

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  31. 107. Narluga Morphology

    This week Erica sits down with researcher Deborah Vicari to discuss her recent publication regarding the discovery of hybridization between belugas and narwhals using geometric morphometrics on museum specimens. Deborah and her colleagues were able to determine Narlugas do exists by studying…

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  32. 0.38 Sunken Ship and Badass Woman

    This week Liam and Erica talked about the progress in regard to an oil spill as a result of the vessel sinking with 2,600 gallons of off fuel near SJI. They also discussed chapters 17-19 of Listening to Whales by Alexandra Morton. Note: We uploaded the wrong episode last week, whoops :)

  33. 106. Orca Sound Citizen Science

    This week Erica interviewed Scott Veirs founder of Beam Reach and co-founder of the Orcasound.net initiative about his new citizen science program, allowing more people to access acoustic data from the Salish Sea.

  34. 0.37 Warrior Woman and Ego

    This week Liam, Kendra, and Erica discussed topics related to Chapters 14-16 of Listening to Whales by Alexandra Morton including sustainability and evolving perspectives

  35. 0.36 Captivity and Whale Pride

    In this weeks episode Kendra, Liam and Erica dove into chapter 11, 12, and 13 of Alexandra Mortons Listening to Whales.

  36. 0.35 Sea Doo

    In this week's episode Liam, Kendra, and Erica dove into chapters 5 & 6 of Listening to Whales by Alexandra Morton. They also covered recent SRKW news regarding the Biden administration weighing in breaching the Lower Snake River dams, a new K pod calf, and the recent declaration of vulnerability...

  37. 105. Kracken the Code to Octopus Conservation

    This week Erica sat down with Dennis Fukushima, lead biologist at the Octopus Farm about their approach to octopus conservation and the state of octopus in Hawaii. He also shares his thoughts on how we can be better stewards of conservation.

  38. 104. Lead With Your Faith Not Your Fear

    This week Erica chatted with Donna Sandstrom, Founder/Executive Director of the Whale Trail and member of the Orca Task Force about her work and thoughts on how to help the Southern Residents. About The Whale Trail: Where the Whales Are: Discovering Marine Mammals from Shore Along the Pacific…

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  39. 103. Orca Diet Estimates and Scientific Accessibility

    This week Erica chatted with Orca Researcher Anaïs Remili about her recent publication, Validation of quantitative fatty acid signature analysis for estimating the diet composition of free‑ranging killer whales. She dove into a new methodology studying whale diets called QFASA, and also discussed...

  40. 102. Dales Blue Whales

    This week naturalist and local feral man of Alaska, Dale Frink to talk about the time he got thrown into the water by a blue whale. Dale has requested to raise money for the Ocean Defenders Alliance click the link to donate! Youtube Video Photos

  41. 0.34 The bae bae

    Kendra, Liam, and Erica discuss chapters 3 & 4 of Listening to Whales by Alexandria Morton. Sources: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/new-state-federal-report-puts-10-27-billion-price-tag-on-lower-snake-river-dam-removal/

  42. 101. Hopping into Frog Conservation

    This week Erica chatted with Hannah Overbeak and Tay Shoemaker from Project Polywog about their impact-driven business model. They shared the plight of two endangered frogs as well as insight on how they are helping these species both through a frog rescue and frog breeding programs.

  43. 100. Homosexuwhale Baleen

    This week Erica celebrated our 100th episode and pride month with a special two-part episode. In the first part, she chatted with Kendra Nelson about homosexuwhality in the animal kingdom, as well as their personal experiences being part of the LBGTQ community. For the second part, she chatted…

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  44. 99. Snake River Savers Protest

    This we Erica chatted with Owen Begley-Collier and Lucy Larkin from the Snake River Savers about their upcoming protest in Seattle to remove the Lower Snake River Dams Snake river savers social media sites: https://instagram.com/snakeriversavers?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=...

  45. 0.33 Loving the Whales to Death

    In this weeks porpisode Erica, Liam and Kendra dive into the first two chapters of listening to whales by Alexandria Morton.

  46. 98. Normal People Encouraging Normal People to do Extraordinary Things

    This week Erica chatted Alex Haraus, an impact producer focused on saving our natural world. Alex talks about how he has used TikTok as a vessel for conserving wild places and shares some of his life experiences and philosophies.

  47. 97. It Take a Village

    This week Erica chatted with Mumbai researcher and PhD Candidate Ketki Jog about her recent publication Marine Mammal Interactions With Fisheries: Review of Research and Management Trends Across Commercial and Small-Scale Fisheries. Ketki discussed her research and how she used the help of local...

  48. 96. Inking about Squid and Mental Illness

    This week Erica chatted with one of her favorite humans Madison Bashford about her novel research tagging and studying market squid at the John Hopkins Marine station during her undergraduate career at California State Monterey Bay. They also have a very real discussion about the role of mental...

  49. 95. Exploring the Mystery of Frequency Decline in Blue Whales

    In this week's episode, Erica chats with Ally Rice researcher at Scripps Whale Acoustic Laboratory about her most recent publication Update on frequency decline of Northeast Pacific blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) calls. Ally discusses her study and drives into the unexplainable conundrum…

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ABOUT THIS SHOW

Breaching Extinction is an investigative podcast evaluating the complexities of the declining Southern Resident Killer Whale population in an effort to better understand the trials they currently face, and find solutions through conversation and connection.

HOSTED BY

Erica Wirth

CATEGORIES

Frequently Asked Questions

How many episodes does Breaching Extinction have?

Breaching Extinction currently has 184 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.

What is Breaching Extinction about?

Breaching Extinction is an investigative podcast evaluating the complexities of the declining Southern Resident Killer Whale population in an effort to better understand the trials they currently face, and find solutions through conversation and connection.

How often does Breaching Extinction release new episodes?

Breaching Extinction publishes regularly with 184 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.

Where can I listen to Breaching Extinction?

You can listen to Breaching Extinction on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.

Who hosts Breaching Extinction?

Breaching Extinction is created and hosted by Erica Wirth.
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