At NRDC I work predominately on the issue of undersea noise pollution as well as to preserve key marine mammal species and their habitats. Prior to joining NRDC, I was litigation associate at a law firm in Washington, D.C. I also worked as a dolphin trainer in San Diego, California and Miami, Florida. While I loved the experience, I realized I wanted to do more to protect marine mammals. Working in NRDC's Marine Mammal Protection Group is the perfect fit!
Posted May 15, 2012 by Taryn Kiekow in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Cook Inlet beluga whales – they’re beautiful. Melodious. Highly intelligent. And critically endangered. There are only 284 of them left on the planet. Yet the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) recently issued a permit that authorizes Apache Alaska Corporation to...continued→
Posted May 8, 2012 by Taryn Kiekow in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Endangered fin whales may once again be spared from Iceland’s harpoons. According to media reports, Iceland will suspend its fin whale hunt in 2012. Fin whales are the world’s second largest animal and are listed as an endangered species. This...continued→
Posted April 12, 2012 by Taryn Kiekow in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Laguna San Ignacio. It’s a magical place off of Baja California, Mexico where every year hundreds of gray whales swim thousands of miles from their Arctic feeding grounds to mate, give birth, and nurse their calves. I was lucky enough...continued→
Posted March 28, 2012 by Taryn Kiekow in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Co-written with Marine Mammals Program Assistant Lauren Packard A young California gray whale embarking on his very first migration from Baja, Mexico up to Alaska hit an unexpected snafu off the coast of southern California: he became entangled in a...continued→
Posted March 12, 2012 by Taryn Kiekow in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Co-written with Marine Mammals Program Assistant Lauren Packard Recent reports from the Japanese Fisheries Agency confirm that Japanese whaling ships have returned home from the Southern Ocean after catching 266 minke whales and 1 fin whale. Although the Japanese whalers...continued→
Posted March 1, 2012 by Taryn Kiekow in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
I just returned from a magical place where gray whales still reign supreme. Imagine the sight of hundreds of whales dotting the ocean as far as the eye can see. Imagine the sound of hundreds of whales breathing on a...continued→
Posted February 14, 2012 by Taryn Kiekow in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
I just saw Big Miracle. The movie -- based on the 1988 rescue effort to save gray whales trapped by ice in the Arctic -- tugged at my heartstrings. I laughed. I cried. And I was reminded of why I...continued→
Posted January 25, 2012 by Taryn Kiekow in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
The phrase “whale wars” usually evokes images of doom and gloom for the whales: Japan hunting whales in the Southern Ocean – in a designated whale sanctuary, no less – with Sea Shepherd activists waving their pseudo-pirate flag in hot...continued→
Posted January 12, 2012 by Taryn Kiekow in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
This week American scientists proposed a market-based approach to “saving” whales: set tradable quotas for them. Establishing a “cap and trade” market for whaling – while academically interesting – is a terrible idea. It would legalize commercial whaling, which has...continued→
Posted January 10, 2012 by Taryn Kiekow in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Co-written with Marine Mammals Program Assistant Lauren Packard Today, NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center released its annual survey of endangered Cook Inlet beluga whales—and the findings don’t bode well for belugas. The 2011 population estimate is 284, almost 20 percent...continued→
Posted December 14, 2011 by Taryn Kiekow in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
If you’re like me, you wait to the very last second to buy gifts. Luckily, NRDC has made it easy this year to buy environmentally friendly (and tax deductible) gifts with its Green Gifts. The holiday season is already in...continued→
Posted December 6, 2011 by Taryn Kiekow in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
For the first time, polling has been done on the Pebble Mine in the lower 48 states – and the news isn’t good for the project. A new poll reveals that a significant majority of Americans in the lower 48...continued→
Posted November 21, 2011 by Taryn Kiekow in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
The genetically unique population of Cook Inlet beluga whales breathed a collective sigh of relief today when a federal judge struck down attempts by the State of Alaska to challenge the 2008 ESA listing of the Cook Inlet beluga whale as an...continued→
Posted September 15, 2011 by Taryn Kiekow in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
U.S. Imposes Diplomatic Sanctions against Iceland for Killing Whales President Obama took important steps today to sanction Iceland for its renegade whaling but should have gone further. The President directed federal agencies to take actions to encourage Iceland to end...continued→
Posted September 13, 2011 by Taryn Kiekow in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) recently said that she would oppose development of Pebble Mine – one of the world’s largest mines – in Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed should it potentially harm the world-famous salmon runs there. In a letter sent...continued→
Switchboard is the staff blog of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the nation’s most effective environmental group. For more about our work, including in-depth policy documents, action alerts and ways you can contribute, visit NRDC.org.
