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Changing of the Watch

Honoring Dr. Charles "Stormy" Mayo
On Friday, May 10th, we celebrated the retirement of Charles
“Stormy” Mayo, Ph.D. with a party at Provincetown Town Hall.
Hundreds of friends and colleagues from all over the world gathered
to roast and toast Stormy, and to salute the contributions he has
made towards the conservation of our marine environment.
After a distinguished 48-year tenure at the Center, which he co-
founded in 1976 alongside Dr. Graham Giese and the late Dr.
Barbara Shuler Mayo, Stormy now serves as Scientist Emeritus.
His leadership significantly advanced the study and protection of
the North Atlantic right whale, identifying and spotlighting Cape Cod
Bay as critical right whale habitat. Stormy’s profound connection to Incoming RWEP Director Daniel Palacios, CCS Executive
the ocean and his commitment to marine conservation have left a Director Richard Delaney, and Stormy Mayo at Stormy's Sendoff
lasting impact on the field and those who have trained and worked Celebration, May 10, 2024
with him.

Stormy Mayo’s Lifelong Connection to the Right Whales of Cape Cod Bay
As luck would have it, Dr. Charles “Stormy” Mayo and the animals that
ultimately became the focus of his career share the same habitat – Cape
Cod Bay.

As a youngster growing up in Provincetown, right whales weren’t even on
Stormy’s radar. It wasn’t until he was a teenager, fishing with his father, that
he caught his first glimpse of one of these massive, enigmatic creatures.
Later, the young PhD student was hired as a naturalist with the newly-formed
Dolphin Fleet in Provincetown. In April 1975, during the Dolphin Fleet’s very
first whale watching cruise, Stormy encountered right whales off Race Point.

At that time the whale conservation movement was in its infancy - whales
were a subject barely touched on during Stormy’s graduate student days - but with the advent of the Save the Whale
movement in the mid-seventies, things changed fast.
Over the course of Stormy's career, and thanks in large part to his passionate pursuit of knowledge and understanding of
this charismatic species, it’s becoming clear that Cape Cod Bay is a preferred feeding ground for right whales, with around
50% of the population returning every season. For researchers, the evidence for this is in the statistical analysis of decades
of data collected by Stormy and his colleagues. For the layperson, the proof is in the breathtaking sight of these rare whales
skim-feeding off Herring Cove and, occasionally, in Provincetown Harbor, right in front of Stormy’s waterfront home.

Introducing Right Whale Ecology Program Director
Daniel Palacios, Ph.D.
In spring 2024, CCS welcomed Dr. Daniel Palacios as the new Director of the Right
Whale Ecology Program. Daniel previously led the Whale Habitat, Ecology, and
Telemetry Laboratory at Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute. He also
spent 10 years at NOAA’s Pacific Fisheries Environmental Laboratory in California,
conducting research on whales and other marine animals. Daniel is a Scientific
Advisor on Marine Mammals to the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission and serves
on the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and the
Cetacean Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature
(IUCN). The Center is pleased to have an opportunity to work with and learn from this
incredibly accomplished marine biologist and oceanographer.

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