I am a Canadian whale biologist and Scientist-In-Residence at Ottawa’s Carleton University.  I am the Founder of the The Dominica Sperm Whale Project, a long-term research program focused on the sperm whale families living in the Eastern Caribbean. Since 2005, I have spent thousands of hours in the company of whales families learning unprecedented details about the lives of these enigmatic ocean nomads. I put computers on sperm whales to study their communication, the origins of culture, and to get people to protect their deep ocean home.

My research is motivated by a desire to understand animal societies, how and why they form, and sadly, by necessity, what happens when they fall apart. My current field expeditions play sounds back to the whales to answer questions about how whales recognize each other, their families, and their cultural clans. You can follow our progress live @DomWhale

I am also the Biology Lead for Project CETI, a non-profit organization and TED Audacious Project applying advanced machine learning and gentle robotics to decipher sperm whale communication.

In addition to visiting schools, I frequently speak about his my science, the whale’s stories, and conservation of our oceans, at museums and universities around the world; and recently on the National Geographic and TEDx stages. My writing has appeared in the New York Times; and my research has been featured in magazines and on television, most recently in James Cameron’s Emmy award winning Secrets of the Whales from Disney and National Geographic.

In 2005, I founded The Dominica Sperm Whale Project, an innovative and integrative long-term behavioural study of sperm whales in the Eastern Caribbean. Since, I have been documenting the social and vocal behavior of over 20 sperm whale units . Though thousands of hours of observation, I have come to know the whales as different individuals, as brothers and sisters, as mothers and babysitters, and as a community of families, each with their own way of doing things, living together in the Caribbean Sea. The whales have taught me the minutia of living in a sperm whale family and given us insights into sperm whale social lives, diet, movement habits, genetics, vocal communication, and culture. There is no sperm whale population in the world that has been this well characterized. Over the last ten years, the project has risen to international excellence and integrates collaborators from five top-ranking academic institutions.