We were honored to host award-winning wildlife photographer, Jodi Frediani, for her presentation, “Monterey Bay: Bountiful and Biodiverse.” Monterey Bay, nature’s magic kingdom, is a place of wonder, discovery, and beauty. A myriad of marine species from phytoplankton to enormous blue whales use Monterey Bay as their home or critical habitat. Animals migrate tens of thousands of miles to this special place. Its rich ecosystem stretches miles deep and has far-reaching effects. Monterey Bay and surrounding waters were designated as the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in 1992. As a federally protected area, it runs from Marin to Cambria. The heart of the sanctuary is the 25-mile wide bay that stretches between Santa Cruz and Monterey/Pacific Grove.
“Monterey Bay: Bountiful and Biodiverse” will focus on dozens of the species that inhabit the bay itself. During this webinar we took a photographic journey visiting most of the marine mammals and many of the smaller creatures that call the Bay home. We observed the behaviors of species such as transient killer whales, blue, fin, gray, and, of course, humpback whales. We also checked out a variety of dolphins and porpoises, southern sea otters, sea lions and harbor seals, some sea birds, Mola molas, and the various species they all feed on.
Consider this presentation as a celebration of the biodiversity of this “Serengeti of the Sea” in our backyards.
This webinar is offered for free to the public. A suggested donation of $10 per participant/viewer is encouraged and appreciated. Donations help cover webinar costs and support our education and cetacean research grant programs. Click here to donate.
ABOUT JODI FREDIANI
A Santa Cruz based award-winning photographer and whale researcher, Jodi Frediani has been swimming with and photographing humpback whales on the Silver Bank off the coast of the Dominican Republic for over 20 years. In addition, she has been photographing the marine life of Monterey Bay for the past eleven years, while taking time off for photographic adventures to Africa, Alaska, Argentina, Antarctica, the Arctic, Brazil, Franz Josef Land, Norway, Siberia, Thailand and Tonga. Her work has appeared in a number of national and international publications, including the BBC’s “Nature’s Weirdest Events”, and Carl Safina’s National Geographic blog, “Ocean Views”. In addition to photographing wildlife in its many forms and habitats, Frediani is engaged in whale research through several fluke ID projects both here and abroad. With co-authors Nancy Black and Fred Sharpe, she published her first paper in 2020, entitled Postmortem Attractions: Humpback Whales Investigate the Carcass of a Killer Whale-Depredated Gray Whale Calf. She is currently collaborating on two additional papers about humpback whale bubble use and recently returned from a 3-week boat-based humpback whale field research expedition in southeast Alaska. You can check out her photography at www.jodifrediani.com
