Tracking a humpback whale using VHF telemetry

 

Lisa Wertz

 

I joined the Vertebrate Ecology Laboratory in fall 2005 and currently work for the Monterey County Stranding Network.  Although I have not yet determined my thesis topic, my research interests are foraging ecology, bioenergetics, diving physiology, functional morphology, and mechanics of flight and diving in seabirds and marine mammals.

 

Contact me:

lwertz@mlml.calstate.edu

Phone: 831.771.4422

 

Background 

I completed my B.A. in Marine Biology at University of California, Santa Cruz where I focused on marine mammal physiology and biomechanics of diving.  Before coming to Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, I worked for California Department of Fish & Game as a fisheries technician, biologist, and most recently as an analyst. 

 

While working for California Department of Fish and Game, I worked with both commercial and recreational fisheries for salmon and groundfish.  I participated in several research cruises, including the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center  juvenile rockfish cruises which provide information on the abundance and distribution of young-of-the-year rockfish off California. 

 

  

In addition to working in fisheries management, I collected census and behavioral data and monitored the effects of construction disturbances on harbor seal haul-out sites in San Francisco Bay while working on the Richmond Bridge Harbor Seal Survey.  Using radio telemetry, we monitored movements of harbor seals in the San Francisco Bay Area.  I have assisted with several other tagging studies, deploying radio and satellite tags on a variety of species including elephant seals, harbor seals, humpback whales, blue whales, and sooty shearwaters. 

 

  

I gained additional animal handling experience and education about marine mammal health through volunteering on an animal care crew for several years at The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito.  Animals come to the center sick or injured and are rehabilitated and released.  Typical animals I worked with at the center were California sea lions and elephant seals, although I also assisted with caring for a northern fur seal and a harbor porpoise.