Marine Ecologist

Degrees & Diplomas

B.Sc.: University of Victoria, Victoria BC (Biology) 1996
M.Sc.: University of Victoria, Victoria BC (Geography) 2004

Research Interests

• Marine ecology
• Acoustic disturbance of marine mammals
• Trophic limitations and their effects upon predator distributions
• Environmental impact assessment
• Roles of spatiotemporal scale and cycles in ecology
• Marine invertebrates

Capsule Resume

Heather has over ten years of experience working with marine mammals, birds, and invertebrates. The projects she has been involved with include the tagging of large and small cetaceans to study diving patterns; seasonal and annual counts of cetaceans, pinnipeds, and birds; and photo-identification of cetaceans. In 1996 she was part of the marine mammal monitoring team for the WHOI/MIT Haro Strait Tomography Project, and helped design survey boundaries and practices for one of the shore based observation stations. The research conducted in support of her M.Sc. was pivotal in understanding cyclical patterns of gray whale distribution within foraging habitat. During her graduate work, she managed the University of Victoria Whale Research Lab's research station and orchestrated a number of collaborative projects with colleagues from several countries. Her invertebrate experience includes the sampling and identification of benthic, hyperbenthic, and pelagic marine organisms to determine trophic relationships and changes in community structures in marine, estuarine, and freshwater habitats.