Katie Rapson

Omura’s whale - brownish grey on top, paler underside - surfaces in calm blue water

Omura’s whale continues to roll with more of its back visible and pale chevron marking on the side

Whale turned on its side so pale underside seen underwater, and half of its flukes emerge looking almost like the dorsal fin of an orca

Big news from the Indian Ocean! First sighting of the incredibly rare Omura’s whale, confirming previous acoustic recordings in the Chagos Archipelago. Project to determine cetacean 🐋 diversity by @iomarinescience.bsky.social @zslofficial.bsky.social @plymbiomarsci.bsky.social Photos by me 🧪 🌍 🧵1/5

As one of the organising committee for the UK & Ireland student chapter of @marinemammalogy.bsky.social, I'm especially pleased to share that the next event will take place at my own stomping ground @plymuni.bsky.social @plymbiomarsci.bsky.social. Keen to welcome everyone here, spread the word!

Some students enjoying lunch in the sunshine

Plymouth contingent in front of a whale tail sculpture

Two excited whale watchers

We had a great time at the #ECSconference2025 hosting a workshop, giving talks or presenting posters, eating some excellent pastel de nata, and topping the week of with a whale watching trip seeing orca, sperm and sei whales!! 🐋

Thanks to the ECS team for having me!! and to everyone here for sharing such exciting work - what a cool group of people, and in a very cool place!! 😎🐬

We wrote a wee blog post detailing the findings of our most recent study @seamammalresearch.bsky.social and why the results are important! Give it a read below ⬇️

Huge congrats!!! 😎

And congrats to you too!! 😎🥳

And also big thanks to the committee for organizing a corker of a week. Somehow managed to win the pub quiz too, which was definitely a fluke 🐳 See ya soon! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Surprised and delighted to have received the Bernie McConnell prize for Innovation, for a short talk on my (very in-the-works) PhD outline. Huge thanks to all my supervisory team for giving me the chance to get stuck in, excited to see where we end up!! 😎

Seals exhibit localised avoidance of operational tidal turbines The result showing that seals exhibit avoidance of the turbine during operation is important for industry developers and regulators, as lower numbers of seals close to the turbine reduces the potenti...

🦭🔍 New paper alert in @jappliedecology.bsky.social! I'm excited to share my 1st first author paper, showing how seals avoid tidal turbines when they're operating! doi.org/10.1111/1365... 🧵

@seamammalresearch.bsky.social

Hello Bluesky! I'm Katie, a PhD student at the UoPlymouth, working on bottlenose dolphin monitoring using drones, acoustics & photo-ID. 🐬 I'm also a Doctoral Teaching Assistant, and help deliver undergraduates courses. Interested in all things marine mammals, get in touch if you are too! 😊

Yes please 🐬