I am the Chief Scientist for Okeanis, a non-profit organization that promotes conservation-research along the California coast. Although local in nature, we adopt a global perspective and our researchers have studied and been active around the globe. 

 

I have been around the water since I was a small child in my native Italy and have always been interested in creatures big and small and their environment. I have been a researcher for the past 35 years and I have been interested in behavioral ecology, population biology, and predator-prey relationships. My work focused on interspecific interactions with a focus on the impacts humans have had on the marine ecosystem and its inhabitants. I started studying whales and dolphins in 1990 and have traveled the globe to engage students, interns and local stakeholders in ocean science and conservation. I am the former Chief Scientist at Pacific Whale Foundation, on Maui, Hawaii, and the former Director of Research at Earthwatch Institute, in Boston, Massachusetts.

 

I completed my B.Sc. degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Pavia, Italy. I moved to the United States in 1988 and interned in the Oceanography Department at the University of Texas at Austin's Marine Laboratory located in Corpus Christi, Texas. Later, I worked with marine mammals and birds at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories in Monterey Bay, California, where I completed my M.Sc. in Marine Sciences. The topic of my M.S. thesis was the ecology of bottlenose dolphins in Monterey Bay.

 

During this time, I was also involved in a variety of ecological studies focusing on whales, dolphins, sea otters, and pinnipeds and, in 1994, I co-founded the Pacific Cetacean Group, a non-profit organization focusing on research, education, and conservation; and led the Marine Mammal Center Monterey Bay Operations’ stranding network.

 

I subsequently completed my Ph.D. in Zoology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a study of odontocete abundance and distribution around the island of Oahu. During this time, I was the co-founder and vice president of Oceanwide Science Institute, a Hawaii non-profit organization. I have been contracting as a biologist with the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary from 1998 to 2001.

 

From 2001 to 2004, I worked as Research Associate at the Alaska SeaLife Center focusing on the ecology of transient killer whales and sea otters in Alaskan and Russian waters. I have been a Marine Mammal Observer (MMO) for the Acoustic Thermometry of Ocean Climate (ATOC) project, participated as an observer in the SPLASH program for the Russian Far East and collaborated in the collation of the first killer whale photo-identification catalog for the Eastern Pacific and Bering Sea.

 

Throughout my career I have been involved in bird and mammal rescue and rehabilitation efforts and worked as a Veterinary Assistant for several years. I supervised over 100 students and interns and have been teaching a variety of topics as an Adjunct Faculty member at Higher Education institutions throughout the US and abroad.

 

My most recent adventures involved a nine-month stint in Namibia and South Africa as a Research Associate for Sea Search, a non-profit research organization affiliated with the University of Pretoria's Marine Mammal Program and a two-year contract with University College Cork in Ireland studying the impacts of the CORRIB pipeline on marine mammals in Broadhaven Bay, County Mayo. 

 

I am an accomplished sea woman and diver.  I was an active member of the US Coast Guard Auxiliary for five years and have skippered several research vessels in both the Tropical Pacific and the Arctic. I love water sports and spending time with animals of all size and shape.