BLUE HILL --– As part of the summer lecture series at the Marine Environmental Research Institute (MERI), Dr. Sean Todd of the College of the Atlantic will give a slide talk on whales and seals in the Gulf of Maine on Friday, July 25th, at the MERI Center for Marine Studies in Blue Hill. The presentation will begin at 8:00 PM, with the MERI Center opening at 7:30 PM for public tours of MERI’s new labs, and will be followed by an open house reception for the speaker.

“MERI is pleased to welcome Dr. Sean Todd as the first speaker in our 2003 Summer Lecture Series. Our common interests are reflected in the fact that Dr. Todd was a key presenter at the Gulf of Maine Forum convened by MERI in Blue Hill last fall, and also was recently appointed to MERI’s scientific advisory board,” says Dr. Susan D. Shaw, Director and Founder of MERI.

The Gulf of Maine is an unusually well-studied patch of ocean, yet many questions remain about the productive ecosystem it contains. At the top of its intricate food web are whales and seals, mammals that returned to the ocean over 50 million years ago. In that time, these marine predators have become supremely adapted to the ocean environment. Dr. Sean Todd’s slide presentation at MERI will introduce the audience to the diversity of marine mammals that can be encountered in the Gulf of Maine, and to local and global conservation and management perspectives in the field of marine mammalogy.

Sean Todd is a professor of marine sciences at College of the Atlantic (COA), a senior scientist at Allied Whale, COA’s marine mammal research group, and a recently appointed member of the Board of Scientific Advisors for MERI. In addition to his research specializing in bioacoustics and foraging ecology of marine mammals, Dr. Todd frequently consults for the federal and state government in matters of marine mammal strandings, and large whale fishing gear entanglements. He has recently returned from a sabbatical in the Scotian Sea/Antarctic Peninsula, where he collected data for the College's Antarctic Humpback Whale Catalogue. This summer he returns to the Edward Blair Mount Desert Rock Marine Research Station where he will continue his study of feeding habits of humpback whales.

MERI, a non-profit organization founded in 1990 to protect the health of the marine environment through research and education, sponsors periodic lecture programs addressing issues impacting the Maine Coast. Please call in advance to reserve seating. For information on MERI’s most recent research, or to learn about the programs it offers through its Center for Marine Studies, call 207-374-2135, Email: meri@downeast.net, or visit MERI online at www.meriresearch.org.

Dr. Sean Todd Photo Courtesy Allied Whale   Grey seals are a common sight off the coast of Maine at this time of year. Photo Courtesy Allied         A research team from College of the Atlantic prepares to biopsy a humpback whale. Photo Courtesy Allied Whale