Trevor A. Branch
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trevorabranch.bsky.social
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

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Environmental science 66%
Geography 18%
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trevorabranch.bsky.social
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....
bluewhalenews.bsky.social 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

Reposted by Trevor A. Branch

science.org
Science Magazine @science.org · 1d
"No one should be made to feel inferior or that they do not belong in science because of their origins." #ScienceWorkingLife https://scim.ag/48JF6Pg
An illustration of a man standing in water that comes up to his neck surrounded by fish, with text: I dropped out of high school. Now, I’m living my dream as a fish scientist

trevorabranch.bsky.social
Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 1d
A telescope farm?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFNC...
Texas farm fights light pollution with telescope
YouTube video by CBS19
www.youtube.com

trevorabranch.bsky.social
Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 1d
In fisheries stock assessments it's pretty clear: do you use a model like Stock Synthesis that is designed to be general and has been used for dozens of different populations, or do you write your own model that can only be applied to the one population you need the assessment for ?

trevorabranch.bsky.social
Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 2d
I think you misunderstand. We will admit way fewer grads despite overwhelming demand from applicants and (in my dept) very high employment rates (>95%) after graduation

trevorabranch.bsky.social
Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 2d
There will be a massive decline in admissions here. And we have a very high employment rate from our grads managing fisheries in agencies around the world.

trevorabranch.bsky.social
Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 2d
... unless that conference is the SEC of course!

trevorabranch.bsky.social
Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 3d
Sigh... good luck in the playoffs! Hope you get a first round bye.

trevorabranch.bsky.social
Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 5d
Yeah DeBoer is such a great coach... look at how he has lifted Alabama the last two years.

trevorabranch.bsky.social
Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 5d
Can Oregon still get to the championship after today's loss to the UW huskies?

trevorabranch.bsky.social
Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 5d
A true zoologist response!

trevorabranch.bsky.social
Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 6d
A 13-deep chain of quote-tweets!

trevorabranch.bsky.social
Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 6d
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you’ve seen in the wild:
Blue whale
Aardvark
Pel's fishing owl
Platypus
Velvet worm
carolinehack.bsky.social Caroline Hack @carolinehack.bsky.social · 6d
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you’ve seen in the wild:
Beluga
Blue whale
Sowerby’s beaked whale
Sperm whale
Walrus
hollyandella112.bsky.social Holly 🐕‍🦺 @hollyandella112.bsky.social · 6d
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you’ve seen in the wild:

Hammerhead shark
Stingray
My brother
My other brother
Cotton mouth snake

trevorabranch.bsky.social
Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 6d
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

trevorabranch.bsky.social
Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 6d
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

carolinehack.bsky.social
Caroline Hack @carolinehack.bsky.social · 6d
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you’ve seen in the wild:
Beluga
Blue whale
Sowerby’s beaked whale
Sperm whale
Walrus
hollyandella112.bsky.social Holly 🐕‍🦺 @hollyandella112.bsky.social · 6d
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you’ve seen in the wild:

Hammerhead shark
Stingray
My brother
My other brother
Cotton mouth snake
mattsdottir.bsky.social Fi @mattsdottir.bsky.social · 6d
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

feelcanadian.com
Jason Filiatrault @feelcanadian.com · 6d
All chess is 4D chess that's why they have that time clock thingy.

Reposted by Trevor A. Branch

whysharksmatter.bsky.social
David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 7d
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

trevorabranch.bsky.social
Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 8d
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

whysharksmatter.bsky.social
David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 9d
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

trevorabranch.bsky.social
Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 10d
Cancer remission.
xkcd.com/3172/
Fifteen Years
xkcd.com

trevorabranch.bsky.social
Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 15d
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.

trevorabranch.bsky.social
Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 16d
My talk is tomorrow! FEAR: the impact of killer whales on baleen whales.

Streaming: hmsc.oregonstate.edu/main/science...
trevorabranch.bsky.social Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · Oct 31
FEAR: the impact of killer whales on baleen whales
Talk on 19 November by yours truly!

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

carlbergstrom.com
Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 17d
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

ljrissler.bsky.social
Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · 21d
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.

trevorabranch.bsky.social
Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 21d
Sad but true

xkcd.com/3167/

trevorabranch.bsky.social
Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 21d
Interesting. I use these a lot.

trevorabranch.bsky.social
Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 21d
Here is the reviewer comment and my response...

trevorabranch.bsky.social
Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 22d
The reviewers pointed that out.

trevorabranch.bsky.social
Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 22d
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)