Biography

My research interests centre around the impacts of human activities on wildlife, particularly on marine mammals. I have 9 years of marine mammal research experience where I have studied the impacts of coastal industries on cetacean populations in Canada, the US and Scotland. I am interested in the behavioural ecology of cetaceans, particularly the behavioural reactions of animals to human activities. My doctoral research addresses key concerns regarding the potential impacts of industry activities on bowhead whales in the Alaskan Beaufort Sea. I am interested in assessing how the bowhead’s behavioural response to seismic survey operations may influence the probability of visual detection by an observer. And further, how failure to account for differential detectability during visual surveys affects density estimates of bowhead whales. These density estimates are a critical component of the mitigation management strategies implemented in the Beaufort Sea region. I am incorporating a quantitative assessment of bowhead whale behaviour with density surface models as a novel means to inform future management decisions related to the mitigation and monitoring of the impacts of industry operations on bowhead whales in the Western Arctic.