Wednesday, February 19th | Portsmouth Music Hall Lounge
Marine Mammal Ecology
This event will feature talks by Dr. Michelle Fournet (Assistant Professor, UNH) and Dr. Michelle Caputo (Assistant Professor, UNE). They will discuss marine mammal ecology around the globe with a focus on the Arctic and Caribbean seas. They will share some results of their studies on how animals communicate underwater, how ocean ecosystems are changing and how the changing populations of these mammals impact the local ecology. We will also hear about factors affecting the health of the local marine mammals in the Gulf of Maine from one of UNH’s vet pathologists, Dr. Inga Sidor.
​
Doors open 5:30 pm and talks will start at 6:00 pm.
Food and drink will be available to purchase during the event.​​​
All ages welcome.
​
Dr. Michelle Fournet
Michelle Fournet is a National Geographic Explorer, a professor of marine biology at the University of New Hampshire, a behavioral ecologist, and the director of the Sound Science Research Collective. As a bioacoustician, Fournet specializes in listening to the world's oceans and the marine animals who live there. Her research focuses on investigating how animals communicate underwater, and how anthropogenic (man-made) activities are changing ocean ecosystems. Fournet is particularly interested in marine mammals including humpback whales, bowhead whales, harbor seals and bearded seals.
Fournet's research experience spans pole-to-pole with expeditions and projects ranging from Antarctica to the Alaskan Arctic, and Hawaii to the Caribbean. However, most of Fournet's research focuses on the calling behavior of humpback whales in Southeast Alaska. She was a longtime resident of Juneau, Alaska and has spent the over 15 years listening to the voices of Alaska's whales.
Dr. Michelle Caputo
Dr. Michelle Caputo is a cetacean (whale and dolphin) ecologist and conservation biologist with 15 years experience in marine ecology and an Assistant Professor of Marine Mammals at the University of New England in Biddeford, ME in the School of Marine and Environmental Studies.
She has worked in variety of marine habitats across the globe, including in the Caribbean Sea, the north and south Atlantic, and the Western Indian Ocean, particularly focusing her research in understudied regions. Michelle’s work is largely field based, and her expertise includes trophic ecology and investigations of diet, population ecology, and habitat modelling. She is particularly interested in understanding the role of whales and dolphins in their communities and their importance to ecological processes, such as food webs. Michelle is also a founder of Sound Ocean Science, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing marine ecological research and conservation application, particularly through community collaborations in understudied regions.
Dr. Inga Sidor
Dr. Inga Sidor is a board-certified veterinary pathologist at the New Hampshire Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, and a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of New Hampshire in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Biomedical Sciences. Her diagnostic cases include a broad range of domestic and wildlife species, and she has a particular interest and expertise in aquatic species inhabiting fresh and marine habitats of the Northeast. She received her veterinary degree from Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine followed by an internship and research fellowship in wildlife medicine at the Tufts Wildlife Clinic, studying mortality and environmental contaminants in the common loon. After a residency in anatomic pathology at the University of Connecticut, her post-doctoral at the Mystic Aquarium investigated brucellosis as an emerging pathogen in marine mammals. At UNH, she has continued to work with marine mammal stranding response teams throughout the region, investigating causes of disease and mortality in pinnipeds and small cetaceans.
