NATALIA BOTERO-ACOSTA, PhD, is an affiliated researcher with the Colombian Antarctic Program (PAC). Currently, she is the General Director of Macuáticos Colombia Foundation, a non-profit organization that monitors humpback whales in the Gulf of Tribugá on Colombia’s Pacific coast. Her research looks at the behavioral ecology, habitat use, and social structure of humpback whales. At UC Santa Cruz, Botero-Acosta has conducted ground-breaking research on humpback whale population dynamics and demographics in Monterey Bay, the northern Colombian Pacific and the Antarctic Peninsula. She holds a BS in biology from the University of Antioquia and an MA/PhD from the Brain and Behavior program at the University of Southern Mississippi.

CHLOE LEW is a PhD student in the Bio-telemetry and Behavioral Ecology lab at UC Santa Cruz and a research technician with the non-profit California Ocean Alliance. Her graduate research uses passive acoustic monitoring to analyze the soundscapes of Kotzebue Sound, Alaska, grounded in the understanding that sound is vital for marine mammals to perform essential life tasks. Working in collaboration with the Native Village of Kotzebue, Lew integrates Indigenous knowledge with Western scientific methods to study the call behavior, acoustic ecology, seasonal movement patterns, and habitat use of Arctic marine mammals. The results of this work will inform local marine mammal conservation efforts.