Marine Mammal Institute

John is a population ecologist who has conducted research on marine mammals for almost 30 years to support conservation in the U.S. and overseas. In 2020 he became Associate Professor through a courtesy appointment with OSU’s Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Sciences, affiliated with the Marine Mammal Institute (MMI). He was previously the Leader of the Cetacean Health and Life History Program at NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center. In his position with MMI, John is continuing his involvement in a range of long-term studies, including evaluating the impact on cetaceans of Navy sonar exposure and assessing the health of North Atlantic right whales, but his primary research is on killer whales as apex marine predators. John began researching Southern Resident killer whales off Washington State as a teenager, focusing on population dynamics for his Ph.D. studies at the University of Aberdeen in the U.K., before extending his research on killer whales to Alaska and Antarctica during 17 years of working with NOAA. John is continuing his research on killer whales in Alaska as a senior scientist with North Gulf Oceanic Society, and on endangered Southern Resident killer whales and Antarctic killer whales as a senior scientist with SeaLife Response, Rehabilitation and Research (SR3). John’s primary research involves combining photographic mark-recapture for population assessment with drone-derived photogrammetry to monitor individual whale health.