AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
For Immediate Release
August 1998
HUMPBACK WHALES MAKE BIG SPLASH ONLINE
Discovery Channel Online and American Museum of Natural History Go Online With Endangered Humpback Whales on Mercury's Planet of Wonders Expeditions
From Monday, August 17, through Sunday, September 20, audiences can surf the Internet to Antongil Bay with the American Museum of Natural History and Discovery Channel Online to discover a congregation of endangered humpback whales off the coast of Madagascar. This online expedition, Humpbacks of Madagascar, transports visitors to the research station where Museum scientist Howard Rosenbaum and his team encountered an unknown whale breeding site in 1996. Online users can witness for themselves this exciting whale gathering by going to www.discovery.com, or linking through the Museum's web site at www.amnh.org. Dispatches and images from the field, migration maps, whale facts, and a live webcast all bring science alive, even from thousands of miles away.
Humpbacks of Madagascar marks the second installment of Mercury's Planet of Wonders, a special online series created by Discovery Channel Online and the American Museum of Natural History's National Center for Science Literacy, Education, and Technology. Coverage of the series on Discovery Channel Online is made possible through the exclusive sponsorship of Mercury.
The Expedition:
Since 1996, Howard Rosenbaum, a molecular biologist at the Museum who has studied whales and dolphins for a decade, and his colleagues have identified more than 250 individual whales that gather in Antongil Bay, on the northeast coast of Madagascar. The project began on a hunch that humpback whales in the region migrate to these tropical waters as winter descends on their nutrient-rich summer feeding ground off the coast of Antarctica. With only an estimated 25,000 to 35,000 humpbacks surviving in the world today, the Antongil gathering presents an important opportunity for scientists to study these marine mammals and to learn how to protect their dwindling numbers. Using video, still images, and sound-recording devices, the Museum's researchers document unique characteristics of each whale they encounter so that they can be identified in further studies.
The Museum's team also collects tissue samples using biopsy darts. DNA tests on these samples are used to construct a genealogical tree of the Antongil Bay Humpback population. As a final step, the team attaches satellite tags to selected whales to track their movements using the Global Positioning System, or GPS. Dr. Eleanor Sterling, program director for the Museum's Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, joins Mr. Rosenbaum on this expedition.
Discovery Channel Online's Coverage:
DCOL correspondent Maryalice Yakutchik has accompanied the Museum's team to make the humpback whale expedition come alive for Discovery's audience. Through her regular dispatches and digital images, visitors to www.discovery.com become immersed in the project and can follow its progress every step of the way.
As Mr. Rosenbaum and the Museum's team track the whale population, the online audience has a special chance to leave its mark on the research. Visitors to Discovery Channel Online are invited to enter a whale naming contest, and the winning name will be given to one special whale and documented in the group's records.
Online audiences can get closer to whales than ever before as DCOL posts audio clips of the humpback's mysterious and beautiful songs. A 3-D illustration of a whale highlights physical features, and a glossary explains their dramatic behavior as they surge through the water. Coverage also includes migration maps, e-mail access to the team, and related web links.
Live Webcast:
A special thirty-minute live audio webcast from the American Museum of Natural History on Wednesday, August 26, at 11:00 AM (ET), will link a studio audience directly with the scientists
online. During this time, participants can get immediate answers to their questions about the whales and the research; questions will be taken from the studio audience, or can be submitted to DCOL via e-mail before or during the webcast. This real-time Q&A will be available at www.discovery.com via Real Audio.
American Museum of Natural History:
The American Museum of Natural History (www.amnh.org), through its National Center for Science Literacy, Education, and Technology and its Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, is DCOL's partner for the four installments of Mercury's Planet of Wonders. The National Center addresses the urgent need to increase science literacy in the United States. Programs using the internet, standard and interactive television, radio, books, and classroom curricula encourage people to become part of the scientific discovery process in the laboratory, in the field, and even in outer space. The Center for Biodiversity and Conservation forges collaborations within the conservation community and provides education programs for conservation groups, policymakers, and the private sector.
Discovery Channel Online:
The award-winning Discovery Channel Online (www.discovery.com) satisfies visitors' curiosity by providing dynamic ways to explore and interact with the real world. Featuring original content for the web, DCOL is a comprehensive resource for up-to-the-minute science news headlines, real-time expeditions around the world, and original in-depth feature editorials covering science, technology, nature, history, and exploration. DCOL is a service of Discovery Enterprises Worldwide, a unit of Discovery Communications, Inc., a privately held, diversified media company headquartered in Bethesda, MD.
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For additional information, contact Karen de Seve, Department of Communications, American Museum of Natural History, 212-496-3411, kdeseve@amnh.org; or Eileen Ratnofsky, Discovery Channel Online, 301-771-4449, Eileen_Ratnofsky@discovery.com.
