Ocean Ecology Laboratory

My primary interest is in how ecological research can be integrated into the management and conservation of species. My research has included aspects of spatial ecology, connectivity, vital rates, and population dynamics, with the goal of trying to understand if the current tools used to manage endangered populations are likely to be effective. 

For both my M.S. and Ph.D. research, I contributed to and managed long term (30 to 40 year) projects for bottlenose dolphin - terehu (Tursiops truncatus) in Fiordland and Hector's dolphin - pahu (Cephalorhynchus hectori) in Banks Peninsula. Using these data I was able to explore long term trends in habitat use and reproduction. I have used a variety of different techniques including both Bayesian and frequentist statistics, bioinformatics, and individual based simulations. 

I joined the Ocean Ecology Lab at Oregon State in April 2025 as a postdoctoral scholar. Our project involves exploring the role of marine mammals and seabirds in the early life-history (survival) of salmon. This work hinges on the efforts of citizen scientists that have collected sightings information of marine mammals and seabirds off the Washington coast for the past five decades.