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’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.

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.