ABOUT TOHORA

About us

Team Tohorā is an international group of researchers that bring a range of experience and expertise to understand the recovery of southern right whales – tohorā in the context of climate change. This multi-disciplinary approach, led by Emma Carroll, will combine genomics, stable isotopes, satellite tracking, habitat modelling and new statistical tools to shed light on the problem. Listed below are the team and what they bring to the project.

Who we are

Meet the team

Dr Emma Carroll

Rutherford Discovery Fellow School of Biological Sciences University of Auckland – Waipapa Taumata Rau, Aotearoa New Zealand

Emma Carroll weaves together different tools and technologies with statistical and bioinformatic models to understand and monitor natural populations, with over 15 years experience working with marine mammals. Emma is a Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi Rutherford Discovery Fellow at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, is co-lead on the International Whaling Commission (IWC) Southern Ocean Research Partnership theme on southern right whales, a regular invited participant to the IWC Scientific Committee meeting, and a member of the IUCN Convention on Migratory Species animal culture working group.

Visit Emma’s website

Dr Virginia Andrews Goff

Senior Marine Mammal Research Scientist, Australian Antarctic Division, Hobart, Australia

Dr Virginia Andrews-Goff is a Senior Marine Mammal Research Scientist with the Australian Antarctic Division. Her work focusses on the generation and analysis of data streams critical to the conservation and management of whales in the Southern Ocean, and in particular, satellite telemetry. This research underpins scientific and technical advice to government and feeds into international forums.

Dr Mark Bravington

CSIRO Marine Lab, Hobart, Australia

Mark is a statistician who’s worked mostly in fisheries and marine resource conservation for the last 30 years, with stints in the UK, USA, and since 2001 at CSIRO in Hobart. His interests include close-kin mark-recapture, abundance and demography estimation in general, and arcane statistics.

Dr Simon Childerhouse

Senior Marine Scientist, Environmental Law Initiative, Aotearoa New Zealand

Simon has more than 25 years’ experience working with marine mammals around the world with a focus on mitigating impacts of human activities on marine mammals.

Visit Simons Website

Dr Rochelle Constantine

School of Biological Sciences and Institute of Marine Sciences, University of Auckland – Waipapa Taumata Rau, Aotearoa New Zealand

Rochelle uses a variety of research approaches to study the lives of large marine animals. She likes working with others to find solutions to seemingly intractable conservation problems and runs several international and New Zealand based projects on whales, dolphins, sharks and seabirds.

Visit Rochelle’s Website

Professor Rachel Fewster

Department of Statistics, University of Auckland – Waipapa Taumata Rau, Aotearoa New Zealand

Statistical ecologist specialising in wildlife population assessment, population genetics, and citizen science for conservation.

Visit Rachels website

Dr Leena Riekkola

Research Associate, University of Auckland – Waipapa Taumata Rau, Aotearoa New Zealand

NRC Research Associate, NWFSC, National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), USA

Leena is a PhD graduate from the University of Auckland, currently doing a postdoc with NOAA in the U.S. Leena’s background is in studying the movement and behaviour of animals, using methods such as satellite tagging data and spatial modelling.

@FinntasticLeena

Dr Alex Zerbini

Senior Research Scientist

Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean and Ecosystem Research, University of Washington, USA

Alaska Fisheries Science Center, NOAA, USA

Marine Ecology and Telemetry Research, Washington, USA

Alex Zerbini is a leading scientist in the development and application of satellite telemetry to study movements, migration and habitat use of large cetaceans. He is also a member of scientific committees of various organizations including the International Whaling Commission and the IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group.

Visit Alex’s Website