Peggy Stap Featured Speaker at MBARI

Saving Whales - One at a Time

Peggy Stap, Founding Director of Marine Life Studies and the Whale Entanglement Team (WET)℠ is the featured speaker at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), as part of their seminars covering a wide range of topics related to deep-ocean research and engineering.

The presentation is Wednesday, December 2, 2015, at 11:00 am in the Pacific Forum. MBARI is located at 7700 Sandholdt Road in Moss Landing, CA.

Entanglement in fishing gear and marine debris is becoming a threat to marine organisms worldwide. The number of entangled whales reported in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and statewide has increased significantly. The Whale Entanglement Team was founded by Peggy Stap and Mary Whitney (founding Director of Fluke Foundation).

In August 2015, WET was featured on the PBS/BBC Big Blue Live, a three-part, live television event. This seminar will present a discussion of some of the rescues and provide an inside look into how our highly trained team uses specialized equipment to rescue whales from potentially life-threatening entanglements.

We are fortunate to have this work conducted under various authorities including the Endangered Species Act/Marine Mammal Protection Act with a permit issued to the Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program.

Photo by Ryan Berger taken under the authority of NOAA MMHSRP Permit 932-1905