Hannah Clayton
“Reading Resilience: how new technologies are changing our understandings of whales"
About the Speaker
Hannah Clayton is a 5th year Ph.D. Candidate in the Goldbogen Lab of Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University and National Science Foundation graduate fellow. Her research interests lie generally at the intersection of physiology, energetics, and behavioral ecology of great whale systems. Her thesis, in collaboration with Cascadia Research Collective and SR3, leverages behavioral insights from a small and unique sub-group of Eastern North Pacific gray whales (the Sounders) to better understand the energetic, social, and environmental dynamics impacting the resilience of baleen whales at multiple scales. While animal behavior has been a large interest since her youth, Hannah's path to her current work was not linear, she spent 10 years in the U.S. Army as a medic before making a career pivot. In her downtime she enjoys creating her own scientific illustrations, spending quality time with friends, and staying active. Talk Description: - Modern-day tools like drones, tags, and models are opening new windows into the lives of baleen whales, especially in changing climates. In this talk, Hannah introduces us to the Washington gray whale “Sounders” of northern Puget Sound, and what they can teach us about the resilience of the species.