Despite a dreadful weather on last Thursday night, the attendance to Dr. Joe Roman’s lecture in the Whale Museum: „Raising Whales: How the Recovery of Cetaceans Can Help Restore the Oceans“ was really good. „

As can be perceived by the title, the lecture emphasized on changes in the ocean’s biota following the reduction of whaling worldwide.
The recovery of the great whales after centuries of unregulated hunting is one of the great conservation success stories of the twentieth century. Yet the return of marine mammals can also cause conflict, as they are sometimes viewed as competitors with fishing and other human activities. In the lecture, Dr. Roman discussed the ecological role of whales in the oceans, including their role in enhancing productivity and highlighted the many ecosystem services, or benefits, they provide to people.

Joe Roman is a conservation biologist and author at the University of Vermont. He currently works at the University of Iceland as a Fulbright-National Science Foundation Arctic Research Scholar. He is particularly interested in endangered species conservation, whale ecology, and island ecosystems. Joe is the recipient of Fulbright Fellowship in Brazil and a Rachel Carson Environment Book Award for his book Listed: Dispatches from America’s Endangered Species Act. In Iceland, he is studying the movement of nutrients from high-latitude waters by migrating whales, a process dubbed the “great whale conveyor belt.”

The Húsavík Whale Museum wants to thank Dr. Roman sincerely for an informative lecture.