Luke Rendell
LightNews LightNews
banner
lrendell.bsky.social
Luke Rendell
@lrendell.bsky.social
2.1K followers 940 following 150 posts
Reader in Biology @_SMRU_ @SchoolofBiology @univofstandrews. Ocean Yachtmaster for hire! Marine conservation, cetacean & fish behaviour, cultural evolution. He/him. Thalassophile. Sailor. #Fife


https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/biology/people/ler4
Posts Replies Media Videos
lrendell.bsky.social
Great albeit exhausting fun representing @seamammalresearch.bsky.social on the Developing Young Workforce/Hope the Whale roadshow this with colleagues from WDC. 3 days, 3 schools, ~900 students ... aaaaand breath...🤣🐳
me talking about SMRU research to a class of high school pupils me standing in front of a life sized inflatable humpback whale called Hope
October 30, 2025 at 3:12 PM
lrendell.bsky.social
And always with r/v Balaena a bit of pure sailing...⛵ #sailing
August 19, 2025 at 9:30 PM
lrendell.bsky.social
Prima facie evidence of lobtailing as a mobbing/gathering/social signal in this species 🤔🐋🦑🧪
August 19, 2025 at 8:10 PM
lrendell.bsky.social
Northern bottlenose are such a charming cetacean, vaguely absurd looking, but consistently showing a bold curiosity toward our vessel (and it's towed hydrophone!)
August 19, 2025 at 7:56 PM
lrendell.bsky.social
our operating area...
August 19, 2025 at 7:53 PM
lrendell.bsky.social
Better late than never but had such a great time last month helping Whitehead lab collect body condition and photo id on northern bottlenose whales in the Gully MPA - see 🧵 for cool whale videos!🐳🦑⛵
Me at the navigation/science station on r/v Balaena with galley also in view Me in r/v Baleana's cockpit with sunset and field crew behind Me and whole crew for 2 weeks in cockpit of r/v Balaena Two fieldworkers on the bow of r/v Balaena can no longer take ID shorts because northern bottlenose whales are too close!
August 19, 2025 at 7:51 PM
lrendell.bsky.social
And for those understandbly reluctant to click on the Mail, here too (side note I do have a mildly nonstandard surname but two different misspellings in the same article is a new personal best 🤣 Rendell 1-0 Proofreaders) :
Dr Luke Rendel, a marine biologist at the University of St Andrews, calls this a 'poor cover for harassing animals in the wild'. Dr Rendle adds that the researchers also made 'no quantification of this behaviour and little attempt to do the hard work analyses that might give us some better insights as to why they do it.' Instead, Dr Rendle points out that this paper is more concerned with arguing that it is legitimate to keep orcas in captivity and observe them from tourist boats. However, Dr Rendle argues that even genuine scientific observations can 'never be a justification for captivity for a species like this'.   Dr Rendle says: 'Make no mistake, this is a for-profit business trying to obscure the ethical issues with its existence by providing really quite lame studies like this.' 'If animals are in captivity for other reasons, it can be better to learn something from them while they are there, but it can never be a justification for captivity for a species like this – everything we learn about them in captivity tells us more and more that they never should be there.'
July 3, 2025 at 8:29 AM
lrendell.bsky.social
Concurrent UW GoPro footage showed the five most prevalent calls type - croaks, knocks, screams, snorts, and squirts, comprising ∼87% of the high-quality call dataset - being heard while multiple (always multiple) monk seals were in shot socially interacting (video from paper supplementary material)
May 29, 2025 at 10:58 AM
lrendell.bsky.social
Here's what they sound like (from paper supplementary material) - sound up!
May 29, 2025 at 10:54 AM
lrendell.bsky.social
Angela analysed 16 days of continuous recordings from a SoundTrap placed outside a cave commonly used by the seals and found 377 bouts of 3442 calls
Spectrogram display showing time/frequency distribution of acoustic energy during a bout of calls identified as monk seal, showing call types croak, knock, scream and snort - the 4 most common
May 29, 2025 at 10:50 AM
lrendell.bsky.social
Well Lars, since you and @emilytgriffiths.com asked... our story starts with these posts, a particular egregious example of the current tech-bubble rash of 'we're going to to talk to whales with AI / Project CETI' bs and the naiveté with which many sci-comm folks are swallowing it...
A post from the AltYellostonNatPark account stating that 'the keys that unlock communications [with whales] are just inches out of reach' A post from the same account stating that 'Whales as it turns out have language made up of what we'd call phonics or codices, like letters in a word, which can be translated by the same kinda programs that translate say, Chinese to English' - unfortunately this is bs from start to finish
May 22, 2025 at 12:56 PM
lrendell.bsky.social
Alec Burslem @alecburslem.bsky.social presented his new non invasive method for measuring body composition in sperm whales - low impact and generalisable 👏👏👏 @seamammalresearch.bsky.social #ECSconference2025 🐋🦑🧪
Dr Alec Burslem in front of his talk title slide about estimating body composition and condition in sperm whales
May 16, 2025 at 3:51 PM
lrendell.bsky.social
Narwhal narhwals because they are so awesome! Marie Louis @mariels.bsky.social shows recent but strong divergence in narwhal populations on different sides of Greenland maybe by learned migratory routes #ECSconference2025 🐋🦑🧪
Dr Marie Louis in front of a slide depicting genetic population structure in Greenland narwhal
May 16, 2025 at 2:39 PM
lrendell.bsky.social
Dani Noreña @dnorename.bsky.social, #MSc_MMS_St_A graduate working ierh @asociaciontursiops.bsky.social showed that body condition in sperm whales north of Menorca support the establishment of an MPA in that area 👏 #ECSconference2025 🐋🦑
Daniel Norena in front of the title slide of his talk on body condition in Mediterranean sperm whales
May 16, 2025 at 10:50 AM
lrendell.bsky.social
Katie Rapson @katie-rapson.bsky.social did a great job presenting 3D tracking of harbour porpoise around experimental tidal energy installations - another #MSc_MMS_St_A graduate presenting at #ECSconference2025 🐋🦑
Katie Rapson in front of a slide depicting how acoustically tracked harbour porpoises orient with respect to tidal flow
May 16, 2025 at 10:28 AM
lrendell.bsky.social
Inspiring plenary from Joe Roman about 'lifting baselines' and quantifying the effects whale real red ecological pathways have on nutrient cycling and transfer in the oceans - check out his latest contribution here: www.nature.com/articles/s41... #ECSconference2025 🐋🦑🧪
Joe Roman in front of a title slide about to give an inspiring plenary
May 16, 2025 at 9:38 AM
lrendell.bsky.social
Maybe I am biased because I'm her co-supervisor but I thought this was a smashing talk by Angela Amlin about using automated remote camera systems to monitor the effects of boat traffic on monk seal haulout cave usage @seamammalresearch.bsky.social @joan-gonzalvo.bsky.social #ECSconference2025 🐋🦑🦭🧪
Angela Amlin in front of a title slide of her talk about using neural networks to help remote monitoring of endangered monk seals
May 15, 2025 at 5:04 PM
lrendell.bsky.social
Marine mammals in the anthropocene - systematic review of publications on threats to marine mammals by @emily-hague.bsky.social identifies key knowledge gaps - also @seamammalresearch.bsky.social #2 in the contributions league table after NOAA! #ECSconference2025 🦑🐋🧪
Emily Hague in front of her title slide of her systematic review of threats to marine mammals
May 15, 2025 at 4:43 PM
lrendell.bsky.social
A fascinating plenary from Cristina Brito @crisbri.bsky.social about the hugely ambitious 4 Oceans project (novaresearch.unl.pt/en/prizes/4-...) collating historical interactions between humans and marine life #ECSconference2025 🐋🦑🧪
Dr Cristina Brito in front of her title slide 'W is for World, Water, and Whale'
May 15, 2025 at 3:37 PM
lrendell.bsky.social
Super complex but important work by @anacanadas.bsky.social who modelled Mediterranean cetacean abundance using multiple data sources - estimates of total sperm whale abundance had no upper ci above 5.5k supporting recent 'Endangered' IUCN listing doi.org/10.2305/IUCN... #ECSconference2025 🧪🐋🦑
Ana Cañadas in front of a slide detailing the strengths of her multiple data source modelling approach
May 15, 2025 at 2:49 PM
lrendell.bsky.social
Augusta Hollers #MSc_MMS_St_A graduate presenting new information on humpback mother-calf energy transfer measured by body condition 🥳 #ECSconference2025 🦑🐋🧪
Augusta Hollers and a slide depicting energy supply and demand in humpback mothers
May 15, 2025 at 11:57 AM
lrendell.bsky.social
The role of acoustics when pilot whales mob-harass orcas revealed - playbacks of pilot whale calls made brave Sir Orca run away 🤣 Great study by @annaselbmann.bsky.social 👏 #ECSconference2025 🐋🦑
Anna Selbmann in front of a conclusions slide clarifying that we don't yet know if orca avoidance is due to a high cost of being 'caught' by pilot whales or a low cost of avoidance...
May 15, 2025 at 10:37 AM
lrendell.bsky.social
The role of acoustics when pilot whales mob-harass orcas revealed - playbacks of pilot whale calls made brave Sir Orca run away 🤣 Great study by @annaselbmann.bsky.social 👏
Anna Selbmann in front of a slide concluding that we can't know if orca avoidance is because they see pilot whales as a serious threat or the cost of avoidance is low
May 15, 2025 at 10:34 AM
lrendell.bsky.social
Bruno Diaz-Lopez presents evidence that male bottlenose dolphins show social aging, becoming less central in their social networks as they age... #ECSconference2025 🦑🐋
Bruno Diaz-Lopez in front of a title slide highlighting the talk title 'From quantity to quality'
May 15, 2025 at 10:22 AM
lrendell.bsky.social
Hal Whitehead highlights mobility, cooperation, large brains, and culture as common drivers of societal complexity in the context of anonymous societies sensu Moffet 2025 - but territoriality is a contrast #ECSconference2025 🐋🦑🧪
Hal Whitehead in front of a slide describing the concept anonymous societies
May 15, 2025 at 10:08 AM