Sowerby's beaked whale (Mesoplodon bidens) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 14

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Biographical Summary of Report Writers

Shannon Gowans conducted field research on North Atlantic beaked whales between 1993 and 1999. She received her doctorate degree in 1999 from Dalhousie University. Her doctoral thesis focused on the social organization and population structure of northern bottlenose whales off Nova Scotia. After completing her degree, she established a non-profit research organization (Blind Bay Cetacean Studies, with Peter Simard) to conduct research on cetaceans off the coast of Halifax. She received an NSERC post-doctoral fellowship which she completed at Texas A&M University at Galveston, where she studied the social and population structure of Atlantic white-sided and white-beaked dolphins. She is now an assistant professor in Marine Sciences at Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Florida. She plans to continue studying the evolution of cetacean social structure by investigating social structure and their ecological correlates in Atlantic coastal Lagenorhynchus dolphins and bottlenose dolphins in Tampa Bay, Florida.

Peter Simard conducted research on North Atlantic beaked whales between 1994 and 1997. He received his honours bachelor’s degree in 1995 from Dalhousie University. His thesis focused on oceanographic correlates of the distribution of northern bottlenose whales. He co-authored a report for World Wildlife Fund, Canada, proposing the Gully as a marine protected area. Since completing his thesis he established Blind Bay Cetacean Studies to conduct research on cetaceans near Halifax, along with Shannon Gowans. His primary research interests are the links between physical oceanography and cetacean distribution. He has also been involved with stranding networks in Canada and the US.