In this presentation our guest speaker is Lei Lani Stelle, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Redlands

Marine mammals in the Southern California bight are exposed to many threats, including disturbances from boat traffic. Dr. Stelle’s talk will focus on how interactions between marine mammals and humans can be studied with new technology. This includes using mobile apps to record sightings by citizen scientists, GIS to map and predict habitat use, eDNA to detect elusive animals, photographic identification to estimate population size and site fidelity, and drones to provide insight into behaviors and interactions.

Dr. Lei Lani Stelle is a Professor of Biology at the University of Redlands, where she leads a research project investigating human impacts on marine mammals in the Southern California bight. She has been working with marine mammals since she was an undergraduate at UC Santa Cruz (B.A. Marine Biology), then conducted research on the biomechanics of swimming in Steller sea lions for her M.S. at the University of British Columbia and investigated the foraging ecology of gray whales for her Ph.D. at UC Los Angeles. Her research efforts integrate with her teaching of courses in marine ecology, GIS mapping, and comparative physiology. She has supervised numerous undergraduate and master's thesis projects, presents her work frequently at scientific conferences and has published in journals such as Marine Mammal Science, Journal of Experimental Biology, and the IUCN Otter Specialist Group Bulletin.  She has also been featured in news reports and documentaries, including the recent BBC show “Supercharged Otters”.