From Colombia to the Oregon Coast
the 1500s to teach the very privileged and, on his daily
crossing back over the Tiber River, saw the poverty and
disadvantaged circumstance of the masses.
“In Bogotá, they would send us to a sister school for
the poor and we’d help teach the kids. Even though it was
a religious school, going to college my fi rst two years was
a walk in the park. We were really well prepared by the
priests.”
International scientist moors
his work on whales at Newport
‘N
ew information breakthroughs for me are
exhilarating. Working with all that whale data
is like looking into the dark with a fl ashlight.
It’s work that is able to contribute new information to the
fi eld.” — OSU Whale Researcher, Daniel Palacios
Whaling’s fi rst commercial iteration with harpoons
started in Japan around 1570. With many more nations
participating in killing whales for exploitation throughout
the following centuries — seeking oil, blubber, fl esh and
other body parts — by the turn
of the 20th Century, many of
the 90 species of whales were on
a steep decline, endangered or
near extinction.
For one Oregon State
University research faculty
GO BENEATH THE
member of the Marine
SURFACE WITH
Mammal Institute, the cetacean
PAUL HAEDER
is his passion, his life. Daniel
Palacios became intellectually
and spiritually connected to
cetaceans after seeing the iconic humpback whale banners
and picket signs deployed on Earth Day, while religiously
watching the series “Th e Undersea World of Jacques
Cousteau.”
Two-parts passion, one-part inspiration and three-parts
intellectual drive propelled him to where he is today —
researching the pathways, habitats and health of Earth’s
largest animals.
Th e harpoon this 50-year-old scientist throws is
outfi tted with both a satellite tracking tag and small biopsy
plug extractor, not to harvest whale meat, but rather to
collect valuable data on what whales do, what they eat,
where they go and, in future research projects, measure their
overall physical health.
Palacios has been working with teams collecting the
information on sperm, humpback, Gray, fi n, blue and other
whale species to determine their range and pelagic journeys
throughout the Pacifi c coastal upwelling, all the way down
to the Gulf of California.
“One of my drivers is discovery and knowledge, what
you could say is strict hardcore science . . . pure analytical
and statistically important science,” he tells me while
we share coff ee at a café in the Wilder community near
Oregon Coast Community College.
Meeting of the Whale Minds
DEEP
DIVE
Early Dreams in South America
Palacios’ love and interest in science started young —
fi ve or six years of age while growing up in landlocked
Bogotá. His parents (an engineer father and lawyer
mother) bought him encyclopedias and books on animals.
“I was continuously reading about African animals. I was
mesmerized.”
He stresses living in an urban and cosmopolitan capital
city was like being worlds away from his own country’s
swath of Amazon rainforest.
HANNAH O’LEARY/OSU
“Th e Amazon jungle would have been like Africa to me
growing up in a big city. Our world was so disconnected
from the natural world. We had no sense of the ocean or
the Amazon.”
Some 45 years later — traversing his early curiosity
attending a Catholic school in a city of 7 million, to now,
with all those titles and associations from OSU (“PhD/
Endowed Associate Professor in Whale Habitats/ Whale
Telemetry Group/ Marine Mammal Institute and Dept. of
Fisheries & Wildlife”) — Palacios has kept his eye on the
proverbial prize of being a marine scientist.
He said his parents sacrifi ced to put him and his
three sisters into the best schools they could aff ord. His
grandparents came from humble beginnings in rural
Colombia not far from Bogotá. He reminisces about
this K-12 experience where he was taught math, physics
and liberation theology — a philosophy that measures
helping the poor and understanding the plight of the
underprivileged tied to capitalism’s great class divide as part
of religious enlightenment.
Th is Calasanz school from the Escolapios Order bore
the name of the Spanish founder, who went to Rome in
Currently, Palacios spends most of his time analyzing
all the data from satellite tags and biopsies from humpback
whales. He likes the vigorous, meticulous nature of this
work, even though 90 percent of his time is not working
with whales directly in their habitat.
I fi rst met Palacios at the American Cetacean Society
monthly meeting in Newport. It was his 15 minutes of
fame with his PowerPoint in front of a packed room at
the public library. “Th is is actually the second time I have
presented to the ACS. Something like 17 years ago, in
Monterey.”
Monterey was his home for more than a decade, and his
boss was NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration) as he was tasked to answer why these
humpbacks are in abundance in this upwelling ecosystem
of Northern California, and to determine their migratory
patterns and territorial range.
“My dream was to work with these people studying this
classic upwelling ecosystem,” he said.
As he shows slides and wonderful images of humpbacks
to us naturalists who are interested in science, yes, and
informed but not steeped in hard science, he states he
understands the allure of the charismatic whale.
“All these people who have a strong affi nity to whales are
genuinely interested in their plight which makes funding
the OSU foundation and endowment easier.” It turns
out one of Palacios’ mentors, OSU’s Bruce Mate, was a
forerunner in getting the general public to support their
work. Th at donor base serves as a buff er, helping Palacios
and others at the Marine Mammal Institute continue their
work collecting and analyzing so much data from satellite
tags.
He later tells me that while he has authored 75
professional journal articles in periodicals such as
Marine Mammal Science (through the Society for
Marine Mammalogy), he realizes few read these rarefi ed
publications; whereas, the real passion and interest in his
fi eld rests with whale watchers, naturalists, eco-tourists and
writers.
Palacios counts his lucky stars and serendipity in his life:
“I am at a place beyond my wildest dreams. I’ve received
so much support, and where I’ve gotten to is due to the
generosity of many people.”
•••
Read on as Deep Dive continues at www.oregoncoasttoday.
com
Paul Haeder is a writer living and working in Lincoln
County. He has two books coming out, one a short story
collection, “Wide Open Eyes: Surfacing from Vietnam,” and a
non-fi ction book, “No More Messing Around: Th e Good, Bad
and Ugly of America’s Education System.”
oregoncoastTODAY.com • facebook.com/oregoncoasttoday • January 3, 2020 • 9