At 3:00 p.m., the museum’s Volunteer Council will host a “Volunteer and Trustee Remembrance” in the Seamen’s Bethel, located adjacent to the museum on Johnny Cake Hill. Family, friends and associates are invited to join volunteers and the board of trustees as they gather in fond remembrance of departed members.

At 4:00 p.m. the 109th Annual Meeting of the Old Dartmouth Historical Society – New Bedford Whaling Museum takes place in the Cook Memorial Theater and includes a review of the past year’s activities, election of officers, and incoming members of the Board of Trustees, Class of 2015.

Immediately following the Annual Meeting, the 3rd annual graduation ceremony for the graduating apprentices of the New Bedford Whaling Museum Apprentice Program, Class of 2012 will commence in the Theater.

At 5:30 p.m. by an exhibition of new paintings titled Dora Atwater Millikin: New Bedford Harbor Today, opens in the Centre Street Gallery – Level II. A reception in the Jacobs Family Gallery follows the opening.

"Wharfage," oil on linen, 2011, is in an exhibition of new works by Dora Atwater Millikin opening May 18

An exhibition of new paintings titled Dora Atwater Millikin: A Portrait of New Bedford Harbor Today will open at the New Bedford Whaling Museum on Friday, May 18 at 5:30 p.m. in the Centre Street Gallery – Level II.

With her studio in Westport Point, Massachusetts, Millikin has studied the New Bedford waterfront for years, inspired by its busy harbor and the fishing industry. The exhibition explores volume, shape, light, color, and texture, reflecting the artist’s interest in the everyday and the ordinary, the gritty and the ‘real’ – while at the same time revealing the material properties of the paint itself and the luminosity it creates in juxtaposition.

Dora Atwater Millikin grew up in Little Compton, Rhode Island. She was educated at the Stoneleigh-Burnham School, Greenfield, Massachusetts, Newcomb College (Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana), and Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, Old Lyme, Connecticut. She has served as vice president of the board of directors of both The Art League of Rhode Island and South Coast Artists, Inc., and she is an elected artist member of the Copley Society.

Recognition of her work includes the Edwin Gould Foundation Award, the John Stobart Fellowship Award, the Joseph Hartley Memorial Award for Oil, and the Fidelity Investments annual juried competition at the Providence Art Club.

An artist member and painting teacher at the Providence Art Club, Dora’s work is represented by Walker-Cunningham Fine Art, Boston. Her work can be found in museum, corporate and private collections in the United State and Europe.

The exhibition runs through October 18, 2012

The use of ambergris is legal in many countries, but not in the U.S. Since it is a marine mammal product, its use is banned by the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972.  However, perfume products shipped into the U.S. from overseas may still have ambergris in them. Any one of us could find ambergris along the shore without ever seeing a whale. But, laws like the MMPA minimize the opportunity to create a larger market for such products, and perhaps illegal killing of marine mammals for those products.

Whale Alert screen view. Image provided by NOAA.

One of the hottest whale-related stories on the internet involves a new iPad and iPhone app that has been created to protect the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.  NOAA has teamed up with a variety of partners to develop an application, available for free, that provides near real-time information about the location of NARWs within the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and the shipping lanes of Boston. The application also provides information on conservation measures in the areas that the ships are transiting.

This a clever, well-thought method to protect a species with a population number hovering between 450-500 individuals. It makes excellent use of new technology and research to provide all necessary information to those who ply our coastal waters to make their living, it assists sanctuary managers in knowing the movements of whales within the sanctuary, and it does so at no cost to mariners.

The other hot story involves a potential substitute for the ambrein that is removed from ambergris. Ambrein is a prized compound for use in perfumes. That will be tomorrow’s blog.

Hot on the heels of its premiere last night at the New England Aquarium, the new movie Ocean Frontiers: The Dawn of a New Era in Ocean Stewardship, will be hosted by the New Bedford Whaling Museum in the Cook Memorial Theater on Monday afternoon, April 16, 2:00pm, as a fitting finale to a day of free activities focused on the North Atlantic Right Whale.  This film features four success stories of collaboration among seemingly disparate partners to protect our ocean resources.

Of the most interest to us here in Massachusetts, was the multi-year effort to get the shipping lanes in Boston Harbor shifted to lessen by 81% the likelihood that right whales would get hit by ships.  Led by Dr. David Wiley of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, researchers, shippers, regulators and conservation organizations pulled together to protect this critically endangered species.  Staff from the SBNMS will be here as Right Whale Day participants, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the designation of the Sanctuary.  They will introduce the film at 2:00.

To borrow directly from the press release “From the troubled waters now rises a new wave of hope, of prosperity through preservation, playing out in communities across the country and intimately captured in the new film by Green Fire Productions, OCEAN FRONTIERS.” This 80 minute film is free to the general public.

For more information about the film or about Right Whale Day call Science Director Robert Rocha at (508) 717-6849 or email rrocha@whalingmuseum.org

A recent editorial in the journal Biological Conservation, in response to the Robards & Reeves report, has brought this issue back into focus.  This story in the New Zealand Herald shares the editorial by researchers from the Leigh Marine Laboratory and provides an update on the numbers from the January report. Unfortunately, the numbers are higher: 92 species consumed in 125 countries. Yes, the U.S. is on that list of countries.

An editorial published in yesterday’s OregonLive.com presents an introduction to both sides of this issue while encouraging the public to review and respond during the scoping period for the U.S. Navy’s Northwest Training and Testing Environmental Impact Statement/Overseas EIS.

We hope to see you on Thursday night. See our website for more details about this presentation and the complete roster for our Combined Speaker Series.

Shepherd's Beaked Whale. Illustration by Phil Coles, http://www.beakedwhaleresource.com/

A research team from Tasmania experienced one of those rare moments of excellent timing last month. While looking for blue whales, they encountered a pod of Shepherd’s Beaked Whales, (Tasmacetus shepherdi) sometimes known as Tasman’s Beaked Whale, and caught them on film. Like most beaked whales, most of what is known about this species comes from studying stranded animals.

Don’t forget about the engaging lecture planned for the Whaling Museum’s Cook Memorial Theater next Thursday night.  Dr. Peter J. Capelotti will discuss one of the most informative and important reports ever written about industrial whaling in the 1930s, The Whaling Expedition of the Ulysses 1937-1938. Reception begins at 6:30, lecture at 7:30. Special student price of $5 available for students with valid ID.

A lecture on this topic will take place here at the New Bedford Whaling Museum on Thursday, March 29, at 6:30 pm. Capt. Stacy Pedrozo, USN, C.O. Naval Justice School and Capt. Tom Fetherston, USN Retired, will present “Whose Homeland Security Is It: Protecting Marine Mammals While Protecting National Security” For more information visit http://www.whalingmuseum.org/programs/speakers-series/man-and-whales