MDC’s January Lecture Focuses on Right Whales

*Photo: “Catalog #3546 ‘Halo’ and Calf” by Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute under NOAA permit 26919.

Julie Albert, director of the Blue World Research Institute’s Right Whale Sighting Network, will once again kick off the Discovery Lecture Series with her season-opening presentation at MDC!

Albert will discuss the current status of the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whales on Thursday, January 9, at 6 p.m.

Sightings of these whales occur around coastal Central Florida at this time of year. Albert trains and leads coastal volunteers to spot and report sightings of the whales, which migrate from Canada and New England to Georgia and Florida each winter to deliver their calves.

The presentation at MDC is designed to encourage individuals to engage in a volunteer contact system that alerts officials whenever the whales are present. Officials rely on volunteer observers in a coordinated effort to help alert commercial shipping and fishing vessels when the whales are spotted.

Albert earned a marine biology degree at Texas A&M in Galveston, Texas, volunteering for the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network and working in cephalopod aquaculture — raising king penguins — before moving to Florida in 1999 to work as the Marine Resources Council’s Right Whale Program Coordinator. That program was taken over by Blue World Research Institute in 2023.

There are currently fewer than 375 North Atlantic Right Whales in existence, making local and regional volunteers essential in protecting these animals when they arrive off Central Florida’s shorelines each winter.

MDC’s Discovery Lecture Series occurs on the first Thursday of each month unless otherwise indicated. The lectures are open to the public at no charge, but donations to the center are always appreciated. Pre-registration is required and may be done online or by phone at 386.428.4828.