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French Polynesia Project 2011 - Research Team

Field research updates

The research team in French Polynesia includes Renee Gibb (Ph.D. candidate from the Marine Mammal Institute), Daniel Webster of Cascadia Research Collective, Dr. James Sumich of Oregon State University, Pamela Carzon of Groupe d'Étude des Mammifères Marins (The Panel Study of Marine Mammals) and several volunteers.  Michael Poole is the collaborator for the project.    Partial support for this project is provided by Pew Fellowship for Marine Conservation awarded to Dr. Scott Baker of Oregon State University.

 

Thumbnail_Renee Gibb Renee Albertson.  Renee has worked in French Polynesia collecting data on humpback whales and small odontocetes since 2005.  Her work on French Polynesia humpback whales was submitted to the International Whaling Commission in 2008 and 2009.  Although the research team will be collecting data on all cetaceans encountered, her PhD work focuses on the population structure of rough-toothed dolphins around French Polynesia and the Hawaiian archipelago.  Renee will use genetic tools to analyze the biopsy samples collected from this project as part of her PhD research.
Thumbnail_Michael Poole Michael Poole. Dr. Poole is presently the Director of The Marine Mammal Research Program on Moorea, French Polynesia. Over the past 22 years, much of Michael's research has been on spinner dolphins and humpback whales in French Polynesia. He has also studied rough-toothed dolphins, and other species at eight islands. Dr. Poole's most important success came in May 2002 when French Polynesia's Government accepted his long-standing proposition and draft legislation to create a whale and dolphin sanctuary within all of the territory's Exclusive Economic Zone, an area half the size of the USA.
Thumbnail_Daniel Webster

Daniel Webster.  Daniel has been involved in Hawaiian odontocete research since 2000 and has worked with Cascadia Research Collective since 2003. As well as involvement in suction-cup tagging, photo-identification and biopsy efforts, Daniel utilizes satellite tags to examine movements of odontocetes around the Hawaiian islands and off the southern California coast. In addition, he participates in similar studies of killer whales around the San Juan Islands and southeast Alaska.
Thumbnail_Jim Sumich Jim Sumich.  Dr Sumich’s research focuses on the growth of young gray whales and of the impact they have on their mothers’ energy budgets during the lactation.   He has conducted field research on marine mammals from Baja California to British Columbia since 1975. Currently, he is enjoying the recent publication of the 10th edition of a widely adopted marine biology text and lab manual, and is working with Dr. Annalisa Berta to complete a new textbook on the evolutionary biology of marine mammals. In addition he is completing a new book that covers the life history of gray whales.
Thumbnail_Pamela Corzan photographing dolphins

Pamela Corzan.  Pamela is the founding member of the Groupe d'Étude des Mammifères Marins (G.E.M.M.) in French Polynesia. She spent some months in Canada working on fin, blue and humpback whales with the Mingan Island Cetacean Study (MICS); she also worked on killer whales with Orcalab in British Columbia. She later participated in a bottlenose dolphin survey at Corsica in the Mediterranean Sea with the Groupe d'Étude des Cétacés de Méditerranée and in a survey of harbor and grey seals with Picardie Nature in France. She has been collecting data on Polynesian cetaceans for 4 years and now coordinates G.E.M.M. and volunteers to perform the surveys of local populations of whales and dolphins, including the bottlenose dolphins that are resident at Rangiroa. The objectives of GEMM include: observation, data collection, conservation, and mediation.