Submitted by the Center for Whale Research
On May 25, Center for Whale Research Founder and Senior Scientist Ken Balcomb and the CWR Board of Directors named Dr. Michael Weiss the new Research Director of the organization.
Ken Balcomb said “the CWR Board of Directors enthusiastically welcomes Michael to our whale-dedicated mission. It is imperative that we continue the important demographic and behavioral research that we have done for 46 years, and Dr. Weiss is the perfect person to lead it. Welcome, Dr. Michael Weiss.”
The non-profit San Juan Island, Washington-based Center for Whale Research is a world leader in cetacean research and conservation (WhaleResearch.com). For five decades, the organization has studied killer whales in the Pacific Northwest. CWR Founder and Senior Scientist Ken Balcomb, cetacean photo-identification pioneer, began ORCA SURVEY in 1976. The long-term orca observation study continues today:
CWR field staff collect data on Southern Resident and Bigg’s killer whale demography, behavior, and social structure. The dataset, which now spans 46 years, is one of the longest-running studies of a marine mammal anywhere in the world and has provided unprecedented insights into killer whale biology and ecology and informs management decisions to assist in the recovery of the Southern Resident orca population.
Ken Balcomb: “ORCA SURVEY discoveries have influenced orca research and other fields of marine mammalogy around the world. Center for Whale Research scientists helped pioneer the technique of cetacean photo-identification, now considered a standard method for identifying free-swimming cetaceans around the globe. Distinguishing individual whales led to discovering different orca types, dissimilar to the Southern Residents’ diet, behaviors, and social structure. CWR’s involvement in orca and other international cetacean studies has resulted in over sixty published scientific papers.”
Dr. Michael Weiss completed his Ph.D. in Animal Behaviour at the U.K.’s University of Exeter in 2020. He received his Bachelor’s degree in biology from highly-acclaimed Reed College in 2016. After completing his undergraduate work on the Southern Resident killer whales’ social structure, Michael approached Ken Balcomb about collaborating to expand his analysis using the extensive Center for Whale Research database. Ken and University of Exeter’s Dr. Darren Croft (CWR’s Scientific Advisor – Animal Social Networks) invited him to come on board as a Ph.D. student. His Ph.D. focused on the evolutionary and conservation consequences of killer whale social structure using the Center for Whale Research’s long-term dataset on the Southern Resident killer whales and new data collected from unmanned aerial observation.
As the Center for Whale Research’s Research Director, Michael assumes the day-to-day role of coordinating CWR’s scientific research work, including the ORCA SURVEY (since 1976) and Aerial Observation Study (since 2018). The Aerial Observation Study uses drones (i.e., unmanned aerial vehicles/UAVs) to study the Southern Resident and Bigg’s (Transient) killer whales’ social organization and underwater behavior from a new perspective. This study helps better understand the orca ecotypes’ complex lives, revealing factors that influence survival, reproduction, social structure, and the evolution of these species’ unique life history. The study was expanded in 2019, becoming part of a large international project examining the link between social structure and life history in animal populations.
Dr. Michael Weiss said “being selected as the Center for Whale Research’s new Research Director is a true honor. I’m extremely grateful to Ken [Balcomb] and the CWR Board of Directors for this amazing and important opportunity. I’ve been around the Salish Sea orcas for nearly a decade, so I’ve watched the ongoing decline of the Southern Resident community with great sadness. I firmly believe that science-based decision making, paired with political will and action, is the only thing that is going to save these whales.”
