Biologists at Cascadia Research
John Calambokidis is a Research Biologist and one of the founders of Cascadia Research, a non-profit research organization formed in 1979 based in Olympia, Washington. He periodically (1991-2010) serves as an Adjunct Faculty at the Evergreen State College teaching a course on marine mammals. His primary interests are the biology of marine mammals and the impacts of humans. As a Senior Research Biologist at Cascadia Research he has served as Project Director of over 100 projects. He has authored two books on marine mammals ( the award-winning Guide to Marine Mammals of Greater Puget Sound from Island Publishers, with R. Osborne and E.M. Dorsey and Blue Whales from Voyageur Press, with G.H. Steiger) as well as more than 150 publications in scientific journals and technical reports. He has conducted studies on a variety of marine mammals in the North Pacific from Central America to Alaska. He has directed long-term research on the status, movements, and underwater behavior of blue, humpback, and gray whales. His work has been covered on shows by Discovery Channel and others and is featured in a National Geographic TV special and magazine article to be released in March 2009. John can be reached by e-mail at Calambokidis (at) CascadiaResearch.org
Gretchen Steiger
has been a Research Biologist at Cascadia Research
since 1983. She has conducted research on a number of species in many regions
from the
Lisa Schlender serves as both researcher and office manager of Cascadia Research, where she has worked since 1995. Her current duties include overseeing and managing photo-identification data of humpback, blue and gray whales; this includes processing, matching, data management and supervision of student interns. Lisa can be reached by e-mail at LSchlender (at) cascadiaresearch.org
Annie Douglas has worked with Cascadia
Research since 1997. She has helped in
the ongoing collection of blue, humpback and gray whale photo-identification
from the Eastern Tropical Pacific to
Robin Baird is a
Research Biologist with Cascadia Research, joining in
2003. For many years his research focused on marine mammals in British Columbia. His current research
focuses on population assessment, behavior and ecology of Hawaiian odontocetes but he is also continuing his research on biology and behavior of killer
whales. Current projects include
studies of diving behavior, movement patterns and food habits of killer whales in
Erin Falcone has been with Cascadia since July 2003.
She began studying the social behavior and population dynamics of
humpback whales in the
Greg Falxa has been working off and on with Cascadia Research since its inception. He is a master electronics and radio technician and assisted with technical aspects of many Cascadia projects. His current research is focused on bat population surveys and studies of bat colonies in the Pacific Northwest using radio tracking, ultrasonic call analysis, and RADAR technologies. Currently, finding methods to better determine the presence or absence of Townsend's Big-eared and Keen's myotis bats are occupying his attention. Some of the results of his bat work can be found at Cascadia's bat page or email him at gfalxa (at) cascadiaresearch.org
Greg Schorr has been working with Cascadia Research since 2004, involved in projects with
killer whales in
Jessie Huggins is our stranding coordinator and has been with Cascadia since 2004. She takes the lead on coordinating and conducting Cascadia's responses to stranded marine mammals throughout Washington State and has been involved with field work and other various components of our long-term photo-ID projects. Jessie can be reached at jhuggins (at) cascadiaresearch.org
Sabre Mahaffy began working with Cascadia Research in 2005. She currently manages several long-term photo-identification catalogs for Hawaiian odontocetes and has participated in field projects in Washington State and the Hawaiian Islands. She is also a master’s student at Portland State University studying the social organization and association patterns of short-finned pilot whales in Hawai‘i. Sabre can be reached at mahaffys (at) cascadiaresearch.org
Amber Klimek is Cascadia’s lead gray whale photographic identification matcher. She has worked with Cascadia since 2006 and currently works part-time managing both gray whale contributions and comparing identification photographs to Cascadia’s catalog of gray whales in the Pacific Northwest.
Kristin Rasmussen is a
Research Associate with Cascadia Research, and has
worked with Cascadia since 1994. Her research has
focused on humpback whales, with an emphasis on their wintering distribution
along
Kiirsten Flynn is a Research Associate with Cascadia Research. She has focused on photographic identification of humpback and blue whales and running educational programs for Cascadia. Kiirsten began working with Cascadia while a student at the Evergreen State College in the early 1990s. She conducted marine education programs for 8 years (5 years on the east coast for the South Street Seaport Museum in New York and then for 2 years for the Headwaters to Ocean program in Portland). She is a licensed captain (operated a 102 foot historic schooner in New York harbor and Long Island Sound offering marine science programs to youth and adults). She received a Masters in Environmental Management focusing on marine aquatic invasive species management from Portland State University and returned to Olympia, Washington in 2004.
Daniel Webster is a Research Associate with Cascadia Research. Daniel has been involved in Hawaiian odontocete research since 2000 and has worked with Cascadia Research since 2003. As well as involvement in suction-cup tagging, photo-identification and biopsy efforts Daniel has been involved in examining movements of Hawaiian odontocetes using satellite tags, as well as similar efforts in California, and participating in studies of killer whales in the San Juan Islands. Daniel can be reached at dwebster (at) cascadiaresearch.org
Frank Garita Alpízar is a Research Associate with Cascadia Research. Frank has been involved in research on the migration of humpback whales and the study of other marine mammal species along Central America with Cascadia Research and VIDA since 1996. As president of the Costa Rican environmental association VIDA he dedicates much of his time to environmental education programs in schools along the Pacific coast of Central America. Frank is an active member of the Latin American Society of Specialists in Aquatic Mammals (SOLEMAC) and focuses on conservation and management of marine mammals. Frank can be reached by e-mail: mntico07 (at) yahoo.om.ar
Alex Zerbini started working as a Research Biologist with Cascadia Research in 2009. Alex has studied marine mammals since 1992. He studied taxonomy of southern minke whale species while a masters student in his home country of Brazil. He moved to the US in 1999 to pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Washington in 1999 and graduated in 2006. His research has focused on population abundance and assessment of killer, fin and humpback whales in the North Pacific and of humpback whales the west South Atlantic Ocean and, more recently, in satellite telemetry of large whales. Alex has been a member of the scientific committee of the International Whaling Commission since 2000 and has chaired two of the IWC's subcommittees. He is also a member of the IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group. Alex has authored or co-authored more than 40 peer-reviewed articles and a number of other non-peer reviewed reports. Alex can be reached by e-mail: alex.zerbini (at) noaa.gov
Jessica Aschettino is a Research Associate with Cascadia Research. She has volunteered on field projects in Hawai‘i since 2005, and recently completed her Master's of Science degree at Hawai‘i Pacific University, focusing on population size and population structure of melon-headed whales in Hawai‘i. She can be reached by e-mail: jma803 (at) yahoo.com