American Cetacean Society - Los Angeles Chapter 
FREE Monthly Speaker Series 
Tuesday, January 27
At 7:30 p.m.

Whales in Antarctica: Age of Exploitation, Age of Recovery
by Ted Cheeseman, owner and expedition leader for Cheesemans' Ecology Safaris

The Antarctic oceans boast the world’s greatest productivity, home to well over 1 million great whales before the whalers came. Yet in the 20th century, all species larger than Minke Whales were removed to commercial extinction. What were the consequences? What is happening now that the whaling has stopped? We are today witness to an explosive and encouraging recovery, yet we struggle to know if the environment the whales are repopulating will be fit for future generations of whales. Join Ted for an exploration of the remarkable Antarctic environment, sharing what we know of this most glorious and extreme of ecosystems before, during and after the whaling era, and the changing relationship between whales and humans. Ted will illustrate his talk with photographs from recent Antarctic expeditions where every year he is finding whales more and more curious about us visitors.

Ted caught the whalewatching bug early, growing up in California, getting seasick in Monterey Bay from the age of a toddler. He was fortunate to join his parents leading wildlife safaris beginning in 1983, and on polar expeditions beginning 1994. After earning a graduate degree in tropical conservation biology from Duke University, Ted was seduced by the glory of polar extremes and returned to California to work with Cheesemans’ Ecology Safaris (www.cheesemans.com), the company his parents founded in 1980. Ted now directs Cheesemans’ Ecology while pursuing cetacean research. Ted has been deeply involved Antarctic tourism management, serving for five years on the executive committee of the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO), a group working to minimize the environmental impact of Antarctic tourism. In the course of a lifetime of travel and especially in the last two decades of polar expeditions, Ted has seen human impacts create striking changes in ecosystems. Some of these are encouraging, such as the recovery of many great whale populations after they had been hunted near extinction. But as human impacts become ever stronger in the places Ted loves most, Ted tries to use nature expeditions as an avenue for turning travelers on to science and the value of wild lands and seas. When not on expedition, Ted entertains himself with kite surfing, rock climbing, backcountry skiing, and spending time with his wife and 18-year-old daughter.

The talk is free and open to the public, held at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium , 3720 Stephen M. White Drive in San Pedro. 

Meet the speaker for a relaxed, no-host dinner at Puesta del Sol (1622 S. Gaffey, San Pedro). Dinner is from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Raffle! One guest will receive a free dinner! 


(Photo credit: Ary Friedlander)