Olivia Trahan
Olivia is a senior pursuing her B.S. in Marine Biology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, and brings extensive experience in marine mammal research, stranding response and science communication/outreach. Olivia works with the UNCW Marine Mammal Stranding Program back home, assisting in responses and necropsies of stranded marine mammals along the NC coast. Additionally, she is completing her thesis in the Ramirez Population & Food Web Ecology Lab, characterizing loggerhead sea turtle growth rates through aging their bones (like counting growth rings on a tree)! Most recently, she served as a Soundwatch Intern at The Whale Museum in Friday Harbor, WA, where she patrolled both U.S. and Canadian waters aboard a small research vessel, collecting data on vessel activity and killer whale behavior, conducting public outreach on and off the water, and educating boaters on how to reduce disturbances to the critically endangered Southern Resident killer whales. In her free time, Olivia enjoys wildlife photography, herping, crocheting, birding, hiking, drawing, and playing guitar. She is excited to bring her energy, field experience, and passion for conservation to the SDWW team as both Naturalist and Deckhand!
Captain Brian found us a Minke whale about 6-miles offshore in about 700’ of water. He put the boat into neutral and the whale came up about 4 times close to our vessel, even spouting once. We could all smell the nickname of this whale, the “stinky” Minke. Further offshore to the northwest off of … Read more
Our usual summer weather in the mornings is overcast. A gray Sunday morning greeted an enthusiastic group of passengers with what is known as an atmospheric marine layer, a temperature inversion. This occurs along the coast from here to San Francisco and beyond. In the Bay Area, they have a name for it, “Karl, the Fog”. … Read more
Our wildlife viewing began just a minute after we left the dock. Hundreds of birds and a dozen California sea lions, our feathered and flippered friends. We saw brown pelicans, snowy egrets, great egrets, Brandt’s cormorants, western gulls, Heermann’s gulls, and a great blue heron. Many of the birds were resting and maybe 25% of them were staring … Read more
Sunny, warm weather is a welcome respite from the marine layer we’ve had for more than half of the summer. We saw a lot of bird guano on the dock. White indicates birds are eating fish. Red guano is from a diet of krill, and purple or dark guano is from eating cephalopods or mollusks such as … Read more
Monday 18 August 2025 Warm weather has returned to coastal San Diego. We saw plent of seaweed in the Quivira Basin, the reds, greens and browns. Large brown algae is called kelp. Eventually these seaweeds wash up on the shoreline and becomes an important food source for decomposers. Debris at the high tide mark is called “beach wrack”. It … Read more
The has been one mix up of a summer on the Pacific. We hung out with a Grey whale that looked pretty healthy all afternoon! It was steadily heading north up the drop off, strong surface breaths and pretty solid body condition. We caught up with some awesome long beaked common dolphins that were enthusiastically … Read more
We went way offshore to the 9-Mile Bank, part of the Coronado Escarpment. It is an underwater ridgeline with interesting bathymetry for scientists that tow a torpedo-like device that does side-scan sonar, a type of mapping of the bottom of the ocean. Upwelling occurs way out here, which occurs when winds blow the surface waters away from … Read more
We had two amazing trips with sightings of Offshore bottlenose and Long-beaked Common dolphins! On our afternoon trip, we cruised out to the SW toward the 9-mile bank. Plenty of birds like shearwaters and California brown pelicans were sighted flying to the south. We ventured on and spotted some splashes and dark dorsal fins to … Read more
What a WILD end to the day! So many surprises! We headed way off shore and found two pods of common dolphin, both short- beaks and long- beaks spread out over a few miles, they were feeding and getting very playful in the wake! O our way home, it was lookin a bit dreary until … Read more
Our wildlife viewing began just a minute after we left the dock. Hundreds of birds and a dozen California sea lions, our feathered and flippered friends. We saw brown pelicans, snowy egrets, great egrets, Brandt’s cormorants, western gulls, Heermann’s gulls, and a great blue heron. Many of the birds were resting and maybe 25% of them were staring … Read more
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