A call to rename <i>Ziphius cavirostris</i> the goose‐beaked whale: promoting inclusivity and diversity in marine mammalogy by re‐examining common names

I am a PhD candidate in the Marine Science and Conservation program. My research interests broadly center around conservation biology and conservation policy, primarily through the lens of protected species bycatch. I am particularly interested in conducting bycatch assessments in international commercial fisheries, especially those managed by regional fisheries management organizations, and modeling bycatch rates in data-poor scenarios. I am equally as interested in the policy and management angle to these human-wildlife conflicts, and enjoy exploring efficacy of regulations and working with managers to strengthen policy and management surrounding protected species.

My strong interests in bycatch, policy, and management are influenced from my prior work experience, including as a former NOAA Knauss Marine Policy Fellow at the U.S. Department of State, an MMPA analyst as a contractor at the National Marine Fisheries Service Office of Protected Resources, and as a science communicator at Oceana. I hold a Master of Coastal Environmental Management from Duke University and a Bachelor of Science from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. 

I’m a Ph.D. candidate in the Marine Science and Conservation program and associate director of the Potomac-Chesapeake Dolphin Project. I’m broadly interested in how conservation management schemes (from the species to ecosystem level) evolve to include growing and changing information on both biological and social systems using interdisciplinary approaches. My dissertation is a spatially and temporally dynamic study on Tamanend’s bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops erebennus) that inhabit the Potomac River and middle Chesapeake Bay, USA. Specifically, the objectives of my dissertation are to: 1) piece together the historic occurrence of dolphins in the Potomac through fishers’ knowledge and historical texts; 2) establish a baseline understanding of the current occurrence of dolphins in the Potomac and middle Chesapeake (i.e., number of individuals, number of mother-calf pairs, seasonality, temporal site fidelity, behavior, and ecological drivers for any observed patterns); and 3) determine their geographic connectivity along the Mid-Atlantic. The overarching goal of my research is twofold. I aim to inform the management of bottlenose dolphins in the Mid-Atlantic by providing managers with information that is currently absent for the region, and I seek to produce questions and hypotheses on the behavior, ecology, and population dynamics of dolphins in the area for future study (by others and hopefully myself!). For more, see Google Scholar or ResearchGate.

Greg’s dissertation research is broadly focused on assessing the impacts of plastic pollution on the energy metabolism of blubber in marine mammals. Do microplastics translocate into organs around the bodies of whales after ingestion? And if so, what are the consequences? His work employs a variety of field and laboratory techniques to apply principles of ectoxicology to elicit impacts of microplastic exposure on marine mammals, namely utilizing biopsy explants and in vitro cell lines. Greg is also interested in  determining sensory explanations that drive plastic consumption, particularly for deep-diving echolocating toothed-whales that are
presumably not utilizing visual ques at depth to hunt.

I study the conservation biology of long-lived marine vertebrates, particularly marine mammals, seabirds and sea turtles. My work, and that of my students, documents the effects of human activities on populations of these species. Our work involves field work, experimentation and modeling. I am particularly interested in the development and application of new conservation tools.