John Calambokidis, who began recording information on the blue whale population in California in the 1980s, shares exciting recent discoveries on this species. Calambokidis explores the movements and behavior of this species and shows new video footage taken from a "Crittercam" on a blue whale as it feeds and vocalizes underwater. For decades after blue whales were commercially hunted, many feared that their numbers had been reduced to the point that made extinction inevitable. However, off the California coast, recent research has revealed a surprisingly large blue whale population.
John Calambokidis is a Research Biologist and co-founder of Cascadia Research (in 1979). He has served as the Principal Investigator of more than 50 research studies on marine mammals, marine birds, and pollution. He has supervised a staff of up to 20 researchers. He has co-authored over 50 papers in scientific journals and two books: the award-winning *Guide to Marine Mammals of Greater Puget Sound* (Island Publishers, with R. Osborne and E.M. Dorsey) and *Blue Whales* (Voyageur Press, with G.H. Steiger). He is a charter member of the Society for Marine Mammalogy, as well as a number of other scientific societies, and periodically teaches a Marine Mammal Biology course as an Adjunct Faculty Member of The Evergreen State College in Olympia.