Our guest presenters for this program are Tree and Scott Mercer from Mendonoma Whale and Seal Study.

Scott Mercer began studying marine mammals in 1974, with a lengthy investigation of the feeding ecology of the Southern sea otter in Monterey Bay. Upon returning to his native Northern New England, he founded New England Whale Watch, Inc in 1978. Using his trips as a public education and research platform, Scott was a ”Major Contributor” to the North Atlantic Humpback, North Atlantic finback, and North Atlantic Right Whale Catalogs of Identified Individuals.  He is co-author of The Great Whale Book published in 1982 with colleagues at The University of New Hampshire, where Scott taught a marine mammal class for fourteen years. He also taught science classes for Southern Maine Community College and a shipboard graduate level class for Wheelock College in Boston.   Recently Scott was interviewed by National Marine Fisheries for a documentary on the History of Whale Watching in New England. He is cofounder of a cetacean and seabird research station on Brier Island in Nova Scotia, Canada.  He flew aerial surveys for the New England Aquarium and led trips for Seafarers Expeditions. In 2014, Scott and his wife Theresa (Tree) began the Mendonoma Whale and Seal Study, doing most of their field work from the Point Arena Lighthouse Peninsula. Since 2014, they have investigated the biodiversity of marine mammals on the Sonoma and Mendocino Coasts, including a daily census of the north and south migrations of gray whales. They present their findings at major conferences.