“The Exploration of the Pacific”

Marine Mammal Science and Conservation

Colleagues & Collaborators

My research is highly collaborative. Below is a list of folks that I work with in Hawaii, and elsewhere. Without them, I wouldn't be getting much done.

• Marie Chapla (Protected Species Division, PIFSC)
  Marie works at PIFSC, and ishired through JIMAR. Marie has incredible energy and, among other things, coordinates all of their photo ID research, including setting up and organizing the PIPIN project (see http://pipin.org/community). Marie is the key person that small program. She has an incredible range of skills - from at sea, boat-savy-field-research-ability to in-the-lab-I'll-sort-out-the-database and analyse-3D-CT-scan-data skills. She's the best.

• Jeff Polovina (Ecosystems and Oceanography Division, PIFSC)
  Jeff has vast experience and vision when it comes to research in the Pacific, and has established a passive acoustics program at PIFSC.  His official website is here. Also check out the Oceanwatch site, which his team runs.

• Ari Friedlaender (Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab, Duke)
  Ari is a great friend and colleague - we did our grad work together at Duke and he stood up as my Best Man at my wedding! Ari is currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow working in the marine geospatial ecology lab at Duke University. Ari and I work together on a number of projects, including examining the effects of climate change on sea ice and pagophilic seal populations in the Northwest Atlantic.

• Charles Littnan (Protected Species Division, PIFSC)
  Charles is currently the Leader of the monk seal program at PIFSC. Charles and I collaborate on several projects and ee are currently co-authoring a chapter on research ethics, with Nick Gales from the AAD, for an upcoming book on marine mammal science techniques.
• David Mattila (Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary)
  Dave is the Science Director for the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, and we collaborate on a number of projects including cetacean research in the NWHI and in American Samoa. Dave is on the steering committee for SPLASH, and coordinated all the SPLASH efforts in Hawaii. Dave also spends some time working on humpbacks in the NW Atlantic and helped pioneer the techniques we use to free large whales from entanglement in fishing gear.

• Jason Baker (Protected Species Division, PIFSC)
  Jason conducts stock assessment research at PIFSC. Most of his work focuses on assessing the status of monk seals in Hawaii, but he also works on cetacean assessments as well. Jason initially hired me into my position in Hawaii and helped me going with most of the projects detailed in these pages.
  
  
• John Hildebrand (Marine Physical Lab, Scripps)
  John runs the whale acoustics lab at Scripps. His lab has developed a series of archival acoustic recorders (ARPs and HARPs) that we use to study cetacean sounds in the PIR. Working with John and Jeff Polovina, we now have acoustic monitoring stations in several places in the region. John's webpages have loads of information on his research projects.
  
  
• Mark McDonald (Whale Acoustics)
  We collaborate with Mark to study the acoustic records obtained from a HARP deployment at Cross Seamount. In particular, Mark has been assessing beaked whale sounds at Cross. His website has details on his many other projects.

• Kim Andrews (Hawaii Institute of Marine biology, UH)
  Kim is the expert on spinner dolphin genetics in Hawaii, and elsewhere in the Pacific Islands Region. She is currently finishing her Ph.D. at HIMB and should be finishing sometime in 2008. When she is done, we'll finally be able to describe the stock structure of spinners in Hawaii.

• Robin Baird (Cascadia Research Collective)
  Robin is one of the most active and knowledgeable cetacean scientists working in Hawaii. Most of his research focuses on nearshore populations of odontocetes, and includes photo-identification, biopsy and tagging studies. He maintains an extensive set of webpages describing his research in Hawaii and elsewhere. PIFSC and the SWFSC regularly contract Robin for cetacean work in the Pacific.
  
  
• Karin Forney (Protected Resources Division, SWFSC)
  Karin Forney could be described as the Swiss Army Knife of cetacean studies. She is great at everything and is always there when you need her. She works on a variety of cetacean conservation issues, and we work together on dealing with stock assessments and mortality estimation for cetaceans in the Pacific Islands Region. Check out these pages to learn more about Karin's work.

• Susan Rickards (Hawaii Marine Mammal Consortium)
  Susan has been instrumental in moving the PIPIN project forwards, and is a wealth of information on photo ID and spinner dolphins in Hawaii. Susan is a member of the Hawaii Marine Mammal Consortium (HMMC). The Hawaii Marine Mammal Consortium (HMMC) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization based on the Big Island of Hawaii. They conduct scientific research on Hawaii’s marine mammals and provide information to the local community as well as State and Federal marine resource agencies. Indeed, all the folks at the HMMC are great and we're excited that they will help shepherd the PIPIN project forwards.

• Andy Read (Division of Marine Science and Conservation, Duke)
  Andy was my Ph.D. advisor, and is one of my closest friends. We continue to collaborate on science and education projects, which allows us to hang out in person every once-in-a-while. We are currently working on assessing interactions between pilot whales and longlines in the Atlantic and Pacific. His lab webpages list the many different projects he is involved in. Andy and I co-teach a marine conservation course in Hawaii - check out the blog entries from the last class (Spring 2007).

• Doug Nowacek (Oceanography Dept., Florida State University)
  What kind of crazy man thinks whales stir the ocean? Doug is an innovative and passionate marine mammal biologist and a good friend and colleague. Doug's work focuses on marine mammal acoustics, behavioural ecology and technological approaches to conservation. Check out his webpages to see the other projects he is involved in.
  
  
• David Lavigne (Science Advisor, IFAW)
  I worked for Dave Lavigne at IMMA for 4 yrs after finishing my M.Sc.  and learned a lot about real world conservation. Along with basically inventing the field of marine mammal energetics, Dave has striven for years to conserve and protect a variety of pinniped species and is currently the senior Science Advisor for the International Fund for Animal Welfare. Most of Dave's recent work has focused on marine mammal-fishery interactions and we are currently collaborating on a project addressing climate variability and sea ice in the North Atlantic.