WSU Officers

Chair

Lindsay Young

Lindsay Young earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of British Columbia and a Master of Science from the University of Hawai`i. In 2009, she completed her Ph.D. at the University of Hawai`i where her research focused on the population genetics, at sea foraging ecology, and conservation needs of Laysan Albatross. Lindsay has worked on numerous conservation projects in Hawai`i and the Pacific region since 2003 with a variety of state, federal, and private partners.

Vice-Chair

Grant Humphries

Grant was born in St. John's, Newfoundland, and as part of that became fond of all things on the ocean. Academically, Grant's career started at Memorial University where his love for the ocean and birds combined after a field season in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. He continued on to do a Masters in Alaska and a PhD in New Zealand, working on Procellariiform seabirds with a focus on utilizing machine learning for quantifying complex ecological relationships. His work took him onwards to California and then to New York where he began working with Antarctic penguins and now acts as the co-director of science for Oceanites. He moved to Scotland in 2016 where he started a small data science consultancy (Black Bawks Data Science), and joined HiDef Aerial Surveying Ltd as lead data scientist analyzing data to quantify the impacts of offshore windfarms on seabirds and marine mammals. Grant has been involved with the WSU since 2010 as communications officer and was the progenitor of the world seabird twitter conference. Currently he also hosts Seabird Sessions and 60 second seabird science.

Secretary

Juliet Lamb

Juliet is currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at CEFE-CNRS in Montpellier, France. Juliet did her doctoral research on the spatial ecology and breeding biology of Brown Pelican in the northern Gulf of Mexico, and she published several articles on tag effects, juvenile survival, foraging strategy and diet, stress hormones, migration, and habitat modelling.

Treasurer

Melanie Steinkamp

Melanie is the Species Management Program Coordinator for the Ecosystems Mission Area


WSU Board

Africa/Indian Ocean

Tegan Carpenter-Kling

At BirdLife South Africa, Tegan is responsible for the research on coastal seabirds. Using her background in spatial statistics, Tegan is collecting and using tracking data from Cape Gannets, Cape Cormorants and African Penguins during different life-history stages to fill knowledge gaps and inform conservation and management strategies. Tegan has a PhD in Zoology from Nelson Mandela University, her thesis used tracking and stable isotope data from ten seabird species and two fur seal species to investigate their foraging behaviour in relation to environmental variability.

Asia

Akinori Takahashi

Akinori is a seabird researcher from Japan's National Institute of Polar research.

Australasia

Chris Gaskin

Chris’s seabird research has involved a lot of time at sea amassing seabird observations, and together with visits to island locations, provided much-needed information about seabird populations in northern New Zealand. His collaborative efforts in perfecting at-sea capture techniques has led to the discovery of the breeding site for the NZ storm-petrel, the discovery of a new species of seabird in Chile (Pincoya storm-petrel) and research into another storm-petrel in the Galapagos. Chris is a founding Trustee of the Northern NZ Seabird Trust with its goals of supporting seabird research and restoration projects.

Europe

Alex Robbins

Dr Alex Robbins is a marine ornithologist with NatureScot providing advice to industry and government on the impacts of marine renewable energy developments on Scottish seabird populations. Alex started working in conservation policy and advice in 2005. Since 2006 Alex has undertaken seabird fieldwork in Prince William Sound, Alaska and Shetland, UK for her Masters and then PhD, as well as working as a warden on Noss National Nature Reserve. Her research has ranged from exploring predator impacts at colonies to observing seabird behaviour within high-energy tidal environments. In her spare time (around work and raising two young daughters) she is establishing a long-term monitoring program for marine birds in Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland, Canada.

North America

Ken Morgan

Upon completing (in 1984) my MSc on forest bird ecology (Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia), I moved back to British Columbia and soon landed a contract to monitor nesting populations of gulls, cormorants, pigeon guillemots and oystercatchers along Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii. For the last 30 years, I have worked as a seabird biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Service. During that time, I have been involved in: monitoring the spatial/temporal distribution of seabirds in Canada’s Pacific and western Arctic Oceans; marine spatial planning; identifying marine areas where seabirds face increased risks from anthropogenic stressors; assessing seabird bycatch rates; and investigating ways to minimize seabird mortalities in longline and net fisheries.

South America

Carlos Zavalaga

Carlos B. Zavalaga began his career as a researcher on seabirds at Punta San Juan in 1992. At that time he began studying the Humboldt penguins and Inca terns. After obtaining his Bachelor (1992) and Professional Title (1997) in Biology at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, he worked as a researcher at the Marine Institute of Peru in the Marine Mammal reserach unit. Between 2001 and 2008 he obtains Master's degrees in Biology and Ph.D. in Marine Biology at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, USA., conducting foraging ecology research in three spp. of boobies (Sula spp.).

WSU member org. representatives

Name Primary Secondary

ABC Seabird Program

Hannah Nevins

African Seabird Group

Ross Wanless

Atlantic Marine Bird Cooperative

Australasian Seabird Group

Peter Dann

Nicholas Carlile

Aves Argentinas

Pablo Yorio

Esteban Frere

Birdlife Global Seabird Programme

John Croxall

Ben Sullivan

BirdsCaribbean

Birds New Zealand

Circumpolar Seabird Group (CBird)

Kathy Kuletz

Global Penguin Society

Indian Ocean Seabird Group

Medmaravis

Carles Carboneras

Pacific Seabird Group

Kathy Kuletz

Peruvian Association for the Conservation of Nature

Liliana Ayala

Raul Sanchez Scaglioni

Royal Naval Birdwatching Society

Steve Copsey

Mark Cutts

The Dutch Seabird Group

Kees Camphuysen

Jan van Franeker

The Seabird Group

Russell Wynn

Ellie Owen

The Waterbird Society

Betty Anne Schrieber

Waterbird Conservation for the Americas

Jennifer Wheeler