SFOS Newsletter
Fall 2007
Mike Castellini. Photo by Carin Bailey.
FEATURED FACULTY: Michael Castellini
Complete interview transcript
Dr. Michael Castellini, Associate Dean, SFOS
by Carin Bailey, SFOS Public Information Officer
From spying on scorpions with a black light to studying two-ton elephant seals with sleep apnea, Mike Castellini has always wanted to know how animals adapt to their environment. One of the preeminent Weddell seal experts in the world and the associate dean of the UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, Dr. Castellini’s life reads like a scientific adventure story. Below is a transcript of an interview I had with Dr. Castellini:
When did you first know that you wanted to study marine mammals?
Contrary to what most people believe, it was not with Jacques Cousteau. All through high school I was a science geek and a pre-law geek. My friends were going into law because we are all on the debate and speech team and had traveled all over the country doing debates and speeches and were extremely successful. We were the California State Champions in high school debate. My high school friends went off to be lawyers while I applied to Dartmouth to study biology-- I was the odd person out. I wanted to go to Dartmouth on a scholarship for debate. And they couldn’t give me a scholarship. So I went to UC San Diego instead to do biology. When I started at UCSD, my goal was to be a biologist and a photographer for National Geographic. The biology came from the fact that one of my relatives taught junior college level biology and we went camping a lot. He would take us out in the desert at night to find scorpions with a black light. We would meet in Mexico and see dolphins and all sorts of things. And so I became extremely interested in biology, no particular field of biology—just biology.
I can, however, tell you the exact day that I became interested in marine biology. My college roommate had a job in San Diego at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, down the hill from UCSD. He worked in the library filing the card catalog. He found a book by a person at Scripps called Biochemical Adaptation. This book was by Peter Hochachka and George Somero. Somero actually worked down at Scripps. This was very interesting to me. Here was biochemistry that was actually attached to an animal as opposed to being in a test tube. We managed to get an appointment to go down and talk to this guy at Scripps. I expected him to be an old guy with a gray beard. George Somero at the time was maybe 35 or 40, young and enthusiastic and he was teaching a graduate class called biochemical adaptations, which I took as a junior in college. I was hooked. George Somero was my advisor the first year. He introduced me to Jerry Kooyman, and even though I knew he did interesting things with marine mammals, I still wasn’t quite convinced. I worked for Jerry as a biochemist. I went to Antarctica for the first year still not wanting to do marine mammals, even though I was working on Weddell seals for Kooyman.
Mike Castellini in Antarctica. Photo courtesy of Mike Castellini.
After I met Hochachka, my whole perspective changed before my eyes. I immediately moved over to marine mammal biochemistry, diving physiology, diving biochemistry and Kooyman and Hochachka became my co-chairs. I worked on the Alpha Helix during its last days at Scripps. I did my Ph.D. with Somero and Hochachka. I went on later to do a post-doc with Hochachka.
There was never a case of “oh, I love the ocean and want to study seals!” In fact, it was quite the opposite. I was extremely interested in biochemistry and how animals adapt to the environment and that is how I became interested in marine mammals.
This is a question I ask graduate students who want to work for me: “are you interested in marine mammals or are you a population biologist? Are you really interested in population biology and you just want to see what marine mammals do?” It’s a very important distinction.
What brought you to Alaska?
I like to joke that I came up with the R/V Alpha Helix. I was doing work in Santa Cruz on elephant seals and how they sleep. I heard that Bob Elsner was retiring from UAF. I applied and thought I had no chance. I interviewed in late September in Fairbanks. It was absolutely gorgeous. We were at a faculty party and the major topic of conversation was who was going to get to the garden first—the frost or the moose. I decided that this was the place I wanted to live.
After interviewing, I went back to work in Antarctica. I actually received a fax delivered via snowmobile in Antarctica. The fax was a job offer from Vera Alexander, the former dean of SFOS. The fax was barely legible and was riddled with STOP breaks. I still have the letter.
As soon as I got to UAF, I immediately became involved in Steller sea lion issues. I became the UAF marine mammal expert How do you inspire your students?
There are two aspects of teaching: classroom teaching and working with graduate students. This will be my 19th year teaching the “Physiology of Marine Organisms”. I’ve taught 155 students over the years. It’s a fun course and students love it.
I suppose I teach the way I was taught. It’s basically the application of one central concept. In this class, our main task is to build an animal that can live in the ocean. The animal might be plankton or it might be a whale. Either way, the animal has to address the following concerns: how does it swim, how does it handle high pressure, how does it handle salinity, how does it handle cold temperatures? It’s very straightforward. By the end of the semester we have a functioning animal that can live in the ocean. It is really fun and I thoroughly enjoy it.
The second aspect of teaching is working with graduate students. That requires a wholly different approach. My graduate students are working in every major marine mammal lab across the country. They all have their own successful careers now, and even their own graduate students. Some of them have already graduated their own graduate students, which makes me feel a little grandfatherly.
I help students understand both the complexity of the solutions and simultaneously the simplicity of things. We’ve spent a whole part of our careers trying to figure out how marine mammals dive for a very long time. The answer is very simple: take more air with you and use it more slowly. It’s that simple. It’s about infusing the students with the fun, and trying to see the tricks these animals have in terms of being able to stay in the water for long time, not eat or drink for months on end, not being able to sleep for months on end, a whole variety of different things that they can do and being able to express that to the rest of the world. For example, next week I’m going to talk to a bunch of third graders in California about penguins. It’s important to start them off early with those sorts of things. How long can penguins hold their breath under water? It’s fun.
How do you see your role as associate dean?
I am responsible to the dean to make sure our academic programs are working, to further develop our programs and help students in any way that I can. I want to stay as heavily involved in students’ lives as possible. I’ll be on as committees Although my role as associate dean requires most of my time, I still have some research responsibilities. I have a couple of research projects still going on. I am still reviewing 30-40 papers a year for different journals. I will be on the National Institutes of Health panel next week regarding issues of hibernation. I’m on the National Research Council group that places post-docs in labs around the country.
Tell me about some of your Antarctic experiences.
I’ve been “to the ice” 13 times since 1977 and have spent a total of three and a half years there. I have five worker’s comp injuries because of Weddell seals, which are basically like giant Saint Bernards, and I’ve had three knee surgeries from working on the ice.
Once, I spent an entire calendar year in Antarctica, from January to December. We were miles away from the main station. There were only two of us—we were the most southerly people in the world except for one other group. We were doing research at -5, the wind is blowing, and there are hundreds of feet of ice between your boots and the water far below you. You have no idea where you are on this planet. It’s dark 24 hours a day in the winter. There are seals around you with their pups. We were only miles away from where Shackleton perished. It was an absolutely awesome experience.
In 2000, we undertook a large Antarctic cruise on icebreaker Palmer, down in Ross Sea. We were in the part of the Antarctic on the New Zealand side, a completely uncharted region. We had a bunch of Antarctic explorers with us. We were in parts of Antarctica that NOBODY had ever seen before, ever. Some of our divers on that cruise hold the record for the southernmost dive ever made. Two years later, almost to the day, that massive ice sheet broke off.
Weddell seals in Antarctica. Photo courtesy of Mike Castellini.
What about research in other places?
In 1985, we were in Reykjavik, Iceland studying fin whales. It’s impossible to imagine how large these animals. Their hearts alone weigh 300 pounds. You could lay a shrew next to a fin whale and they are both mammals. It’s an amazing thing.
Another favorite experience was when I was working off the coast of California with elephant seals. Large elephant seals can weigh around 3000 kilos (6,600 pounds). Working on the beach is one of the neatest things I’ll ever do. By the way, elephant seals have sleep apnea.
Mike Castellini has published papers in 70 journals, 14 books. His personal goal is to publish 100 publications before he retires. He’s earned a UAF student mentor award, served as the director of the Alaska SeaLife Center, and has served on countless boards and advisory panels. His many contributions to Antarctic science has resulted in the naming of Castellini now has a part of Antarctica named after him, the “Castellini Bluff” 78°09’S Latitude, 167°10’E Longitude, a rocky bluff rising just over 1500 feet in western White Island in the Ross Archipelago.
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