Trevor A. Branch

@trevorabranch.bsky.social

11K followers 250 following 1.3K posts

Professor at Univ of Washington @uwsafs.bsky.social I run models and synthesize data, love R graphics, and do research on the status of marine fisheries, fishing quotas, and blue whales @bluewhalenews.bsky.social

Videos

Environmental science 66%

Geography 18%

Posts Replies Media Videos

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Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · Mar 19

Sorting out the history of whaling pressure on five populations of blue whales in the Indian Ocean and SW Pacific. So many years of work went into this monumental collaboration with many many coauthors. So pleased to see this paper finally published.
doi.org/10.1111/mms....

Blue whale news @bluewhalenews.bsky.social · Mar 19

Published! Our huge effort to obtain catch series for each of five overlapping populations of pygmy blue whales. Big collaboration with 30+ coauthors using spatial patterns of blue whale song (unique to each population) to figure out where each resides 1/n

Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 12h

Yeah DeBoer is such a great coach... look at how he has lifted Alabama the last two years.

Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 12h

Can Oregon still get to the championship after today's loss to the UW huskies?

Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 12h

A true zoologist response!

Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 1d

A 13-deep chain of quote-tweets!

Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 1d

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you’ve seen in the wild:
Blue whale
Aardvark
Pel's fishing owl
Platypus
Velvet worm

Caroline Hack @carolinehack.bsky.social · 1d

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you’ve seen in the wild:
Beluga
Blue whale
Sowerby’s beaked whale
Sperm whale
Walrus

Holly 🐕‍🦺 @hollyandella112.bsky.social · 1d

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you’ve seen in the wild:

Hammerhead shark
Stingray
My brother
My other brother
Cotton mouth snake

Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 1d

Wait, really? It did seem like a very good deal... ;)

Seriously, I'm only renting the car in a few weeks time

Reposted by Andrew Edwards

Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 1d

By almost any measure, China produces more, and better, science than the US now. And this was true before the enormous cuts to funding for research in the US that has happened this year
quincyinst.org/research/chi...

China’s Historic Rise to the Top of the Scientific Ladder

Long-term U.S. innovation potential will depend on renewing our own scientific capacities and remaining in touch with the global scientific frontier.

quincyinst.org

Reposted by Trevor A. Branch

Caroline Hack @carolinehack.bsky.social · 1d

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you’ve seen in the wild:
Beluga
Blue whale
Sowerby’s beaked whale
Sperm whale
Walrus

Holly 🐕‍🦺 @hollyandella112.bsky.social · 1d

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you’ve seen in the wild:

Hammerhead shark
Stingray
My brother
My other brother
Cotton mouth snake

Fi @mattsdottir.bsky.social · 1d

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you’ve seen in the wild:

Giant Monitor Lizard
Wombat
Whale Shark
Cassowary
Kākāpō

Reposted by Alan Richardson, Trevor A. Branch

Jason Filiatrault @feelcanadian.com · 1d

All chess is 4D chess that's why they have that time clock thingy.

Reposted by Trevor A. Branch

David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 1d

WCS Celebrates Historic and Sweeping Trade Protections for Sharks and Rays Adopted at CITES CoP20 > Newsroom | All CITES shark and ray proposals pass – marking the most comprehensive advance in global shark conservation in CITES history.

WCS Celebrates Historic and Sweeping Trade Protections for Sharks and Rays Adopted at CITES CoP20

Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Nov. 28, 2025 – The following statement was issued today from CITES CoP20, celebrating the adoption of sweeping and historic adoption of new international trade protections for…

newsroom.wcs.org

Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 3d

A booked a rental car with Budget and they have sent me six (SIX!) reminders about the booking so far, about one a week. Does this seem excessive?

Reposted by Andrew Edwards, Trevor A. Branch

David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 4d

Every year around Thanksgiving, I see tons of grad students post heartbreaking messages on social media about how their loved ones don’t understand or support their decision to study what seems like something pointless or silly.

Perhaps my American Scientist essay can help!

🧪🌎🦑 #SciComm

“Why Are We Funding This?”

Long-standing myths about “silly science” have contributed to the reckless slashing of government-supported research.

www.americanscientist.org

Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 5d

Cancer remission.
xkcd.com/3172/

Fifteen Years

xkcd.com

Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 10d

Sperm whales too, of course. And beaked whales are often eaten by killer whales in Australia, I'm told. Once they come to the surface after a long dive they need time to recover and are easy pickings.

Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 11d

My talk is tomorrow! FEAR: the impact of killer whales on baleen whales.

Streaming: hmsc.oregonstate.edu/main/science...

Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 29d

FEAR: the impact of killer whales on baleen whales
Talk on 19 November by yours truly!

Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 11d

What's the easiest way to change the color of a solid shape? E.g. how to make the shapes below gray or blue.

Reposted by Michael A. Clemens, Catarina Dutilh Novaes, Trevor A. Branch

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 12d

Way back in 1947, Alan Turing had thoughts on how AI would influence the demand for skilled labor.

(via Matteo Pasquinelli 2023 _The Eye of the Master_)

Roughly speaking those who work in connection with the [automatic computing engine] will be divided into its masters and its servants. Its masters will plan out instruction tables for it, thinking up deeper and deeper ways of using it...The masters are liable to get replaced because as soon as any technique becomes at all stereotyped it becomes possible to devise a system of instruction tables which will enable the electronic computer to do it for itself. It may happen however that the masters will refuse to do this. They may be unwilling to let their jobs be stolen from them in this way. In that case they would surround the whole of their work with mystery and make excuses, couched in well chosen gibberish, whenever any dangerous suggestions were made.

— Alan Turing (1947) Lecture on the Automatic Computing Engine

Reposted by Lisa W. Fazio, Mark W. Westneat, Trevor A. Branch , and 1 more Lisa W. Fazio, Mark W. Westneat, Trevor A. Branch, Jesse R. Lasky

Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · 16d

NSF is open again!

A few comments:

*Please be patient.
During a shutdown NSF employees cannot open computers or respond to emails.

*Merit review will continue. However panels won’t resume until after Dec 8th.

*POs remain excited and committed to advancing science and the scientific workforce.

Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 16d

Sad but true

xkcd.com/3167/

Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 16d

Interesting. I use these a lot.

Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 16d

Here is the reviewer comment and my response...

Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 17d

The reviewers pointed that out.

Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 17d

One recent paper I had a lot of fun writing, including legitimate mention of the fight club of whales. The most cited scientists are usually also those who write the best (for a widest audience, with interesting metaphors)

Reposted by Trevor A. Branch

Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social · 17d

Scientific writing and writing for the public are very different. As I do both, is that difference eroding for me? And if it is, is that good or bad?

Are my academic and non-academic writing styles converging? And would that be good?

I spent the first 25 years of my academic career writing scientific papers (and the grant proposals to fund them, of course). I never found that easy – although it got easier through time (and it c…

scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Trevor A. Branch, Michael F. Tlusty

Dr. Jeffrey Kavanaugh 🇨🇦 @jlkavanaugh.bsky.social · 17d

55 years ago today, the Oregon State Highway Division had a whale of a problem on its hands. How it solved it is the stuff of legends.

In other words: Happy Exploding Whale Day!

The Exploding Whale: An infamous moment in Oregon history creates a strangely beloved icon

YouTube video by KATU News

youtu.be

Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 18d

Clearly @hadley.nz is the Coddfather of R.

Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 18d

Arrived With the Wind seemed a little too obvious...

Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 18d

Definitely worth the wait, although kind of annoying to leave us on a cliffhanger at the end of Season 1 of By The Wind.

Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 18d

This is so cool!

Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · 19d

In our last thread, we left the jelly-enjoyers of Bluesky with a cliff hanger ending, in what one eager onlooker described as soap opera science 😜 ... wait no more, we are back! Grab your popcorn shrimp and come with us on a journey spanning more than...

bsky.app/profile/iwan...

Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · Oct 14

Kailua Beach, Hawai’i: The first time I laid eyes on a By-the-wind sailor, I stopped dead in my tracks, dusted the sand off my hands, grabbed my iphone and...

Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 18d

And, I presume, not for vengeance Moby Dick style!

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