Amy
About Me
I started volunteering on the right whale project in 1983, just after college. I knew virtually nothing about right whales when I started, but because of my boat handling and map making skills, Scott Kraus, now the VP of Research, took me on as a volunteer. After my first field season in Lubec that summer, I was hooked! I became a full-time employee in 1988 and have been working on this project ever since. Some might be surprised to think that 26 years on the same project has not become stagnant for me but amazingly, I continue to learn every day. By studying this endangered species in such depth, I have been able to acquire knowledge about a wide variety of topics including marine policy, forensics, population dynamics, genetics, acoustics, and more. All of these topics have important relevance to right whales. My primary interest is integrating science into well-formulated policies to help protect the right whale population from going extinct. I attended graduate school in 1994 at the University of Rhode Island's Marine Affairs Program where I gained in-depth knowledge about marine policy.