Geospatial Ecology of Marine Megafauna Laboratory

My research interests are in the ecology and conservation of marine mammals. In particular, I study what drives when and where these animals can be found and how their distribution overlaps with human activities, using tools such as spatial statistics, bioacoustics, and oceanography.

My masters research investigated the distribution, residency patterns, population connectivity, and abundance of blue whales in New Zealand. Working together with an international team of scientists, we documented a unique population of ~700 blue whales that are genetically distinct and present in the South Taranaki Bight (STB) region year-round. In addition to being an important foraging ground for blue whales, the STB region is heavily used by industry, with active oil and gas exploration and extraction, vessel traffic, and proposed seafloor mining. Subsequently, my doctoral research focused on the ecology of this New Zealand blue whale population, bringing together multiple data streams to understand their habitat use patterns and inform conservation management efforts through the OBSIDIAN project. In my PhD, I harnessed a variety of analytical tools to build an increased understanding of environmental forcing on prey availability and blue whale distribution patterns, paving the way for dynamic management, and yielding new insights into habitat use and life history patterns of a population. 

 As a postdoctoral scholar, I will be investigating harbor porpoise and gray whale distribution patterns in the nearshore waters of the Northern California Current over three decades through the EMERALD project.