Palo Verdes Whales

Alisa Schulman-Janiger has been the director and coordinator of the shore-based ACS/LA Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project since 1984, which is based at Point Vicente and staffed by trained volunteers. The purpose of this project, which is the only full-season Gray Whale Census, is to collect data on the gray whales and other cetaceans that utilize nearshore waters (including identifications, counts, and behaviors) and to compare long-term trends in gray whale migration timing, calf recruitment, and in the seasonality of other species. She has served on ACS/LA (American Cetacean Society, Los Angeles Chapter) Board of Directors since 1983. She is one of the instructors for the Cabrillo Whalewatch program, training whalewatch naturalists. Alisa has been photo-identifying California killer whales, archiving their sightings, and studying their distribution, natural history, and behavior for over 30 years, which evolved into the California Killer Whale Project. She is the co-author of the 1997 NOAA Technical Memorandum called “Killer Whales of California and Western Mexico: A Catalog of Photo-Identified Individuals”, and is working on the update to this catalog. She spends a couple of months each year in Monterey Bay doing killer whale research. Alisa is an on-board naturalist on boats in both southern California and Monterey Bay; she has also worked as on-board naturalist in Baja California and Alaska, naturalist and staff scientist while researching humpback whales in Massachusetts, and field researcher on harbor porpoise, humpback whales, and killer whales with the National Marine Mammal Lab in Alaska. She was the marine biologist/educator in San Pedro High School Marine Science Magnet for 21 years, and on boats for the 10 previous years. Alisa shares her cetacean photo-ID images with other whale researchers, including those with Cascadia Research Collective and NOAA. She has a Bachelor’s of Science degree from California State University, Long Beach in Zoology (emphasizing marine biology), and a life science teaching credential from California State University, Dominguez Hills.

Alisa has authored and co-authored many papers on killer whales, gray whales, and humpback whales. Her work with killer whales and gray whales has been featured on National Geographic Explorer and PBS. She has given presentations and posters to the following research, education and conservation organizations: the Society for Marine Mammalogy, the American Cetacean Society, the Southern California Marine Mammal Workshop, and the International Orca Symposium and Workshop.