Researchers

Jonathan Stern


Jon has been an integral part of the project since 1980, joining first as a volunteer and quickly growing into the role of co-investigator. In 1984 he began a parallel study in Monterey Bay CA, and a renewed effort to collect data on foraging behaviour of minke whales led him and Rus Hoelzel back to the San Juans in 2005. While he and Rus continue their field efforts in the San Juan Islands each summer, Jon also started another study off San Francisco, CA in 2007.  The focus of this work will be habitat use patterns. A central part of this work will include the use of Mass-Balance Models, focusing on food web-interactions and energy flux through the respective marine ecosystems. He currently teaches in the Biology Department at San Francisco State University. Jon also enjoys doing other things, but what they are escapes him at the moment.

Rus Hoelzel

Rus is another founder of the minke whale project from the 1980's. He studies the molecular and behavioral ecology of species in the wild, and has worked with a diversity of marine species, including various whales, dolphins, seals and fish. He is currently based in the School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Durham (UK) where he teaches on subjects ranging from evolutionary biology to marine ecology. Rus' main minke whale interests with are in patterns of population genetic structure, and regional habitat use, especially with respect to foraging strategies. He has worked with Peter Evans on the minke whale population in the Hebrides (Scotland) since 1998. One feature of the Northeast Pacific Minke Whale Project will be the comparative analysis of the minke whales found there with those in the Hebrides population.

Frances Robertson

Frankie joined the minke whale project in 2005. She volunteered to work on the project after completing a study on killer whales on the San Juan Islands. She plays a key role in the field work, both with the collection of the photo-ID and foraging behaviour data as well as taking a lead role in the field work logistics.  She has continued to be involved with the minke whale project by developing a Minke whale focused Sightings Network and increasing the awareness of both the minke whale and the project through presentations.  Frankie continues to assist with the field work and data analysis each summer while also pursing a PhD studying the effects of seismic surveys on bowhead whale behaviour. Frankie has also studied harbor porpoises in Scotland and killer whales in British Columbia and Washington State.

Visiting Scientists

Alison Gill

Alison joined the project in September 2005 and visited again in 2011. Alison helped with the data collection during the 2005 fieldwork and also created this website for the project. Alison had previously been living in Scotland studying minke whales for 8 years and guiding on whale watching vessels (see her Scottish website www.projectminke.com). She has recently been working as a marine mammal observer and passive acoustic monitoring operator protecting marine mammals against offshore industry activities. She also runs training courses through her company www.intelligentocean.com

 

Katie Kuker

Katie joined in with the minke project in 2005, helping with the data collection. Her interest in minke whales developed from a university exchange year (from Canada to Scotland) where she joined Alison to analyse Scottish minke whale data. She has since studied humpbacks in Hawaii and minke whales on the east coast of Canada. She later studied sea otters on the west coast of Canada and now works for an environmental consultancy company in Vancouver.

Dr. Meike Scheidat

Meike studied the distribution of harbour porpoises in the North Sea and was collaborated on the SCANS II survey in 2006.  More importantly, Meike spent the 2006/7 winter season on the Polarstern Expedition carrying out aerial surveys for minke whales in the Antarctic. Specifically, she is studying the correlation of minke whales with the ice edge. This relationship has important ecological considerations, and makes estimating minke whale population size difficult. Also during this expedition She made a remarkable sighting of four rare Arnoux’s beaked whales. She spent part of the 2006 summer field season in the San Juan Islands, as a valuable member of the minke whale field team.  Meike also spent several years studying humpback whales off Ecuador.

 

Pia Anderwald

Pia was involved in the first field season of the current Northeast Pacific Minke Whale Project in 2004 (together with volunteer Edwin Koolmoes) while she was working towards her PhD with Rus at the University of Durham.  She was studying minke whale population genetic structure in the North Atlantic, and their comparative feeding ecology in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. Pia also earned her Masters degree in 2002 at the University of Zurich on niche differentiation among cetaceans in the North East Atlantic.

Duncan Haldane

Duncan  assisted the minke project during the 2005 and 2006 field seasons while a senior at MacClay High School in Tallahassee, FL. He is interested in studying robotics as well as genetics. He has also assisted in excavating ancient shipwrecks in Egypt. Duncan plays lead guitar in a band in Tallahassee, and sees a Les Paul Gold Top in his future.