Sue Moore Appointed Director of National Marine Mammal Lab

Dr. Sue Moore was named Director of the National Marine Mammal Laboratory (NMML) effective 13 January 2002.

Between 1998 and 2001, Moore lead the NMML’s Cetacean Assessment and Ecology Program.  In that position, she coordinated research projects on beluga, gray, blue, humpback, and North Pacific right whales and initiated use of passive acoustic call detection for assessment of large whales in the southeastern Bering Sea.

Moore also served as a member of the U.S. delegation to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) where she participated in efforts to incorporate environmental data to the management regime for large whales.  She also served as the inter-sessional coordinator for the IWC’s Arctic working group seeking to assess the effects of climate change on large-whale habitats there.

Prior to coming to the AFSC, Dr. Moore worked on various marine mammal research projects, under contract to the U.S. Navy (USN) and the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS).  Between 1981 and 1991, she lead the MMS aerial survey program for cetaceans offshore northern Alaska and later used the 10-year sighting database derived from this work as the foundation for her Ph.D. dissertation at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO).  Between 1978 and 1981 and again in 1992-97, Moore lead marine mammal assessment teams in response to USN underwater noise and ship shock programs.  These projects included assessment of noise exposure levels on marine mammals and the design of mitigation plans to lessen the potential impact of military activities on marine mammals in the North Pacific.

Since receiving her Ph.D from SIO in 1997, Moore has been an active member of the academic research community.  Her pursuit of acoustic detection capabilities for the NMML has resulted in the consolidation of a team with SIO colleagues and fostered the successful deployment of 12 passive acoustic recorders, 4 in the southeastern Bering Sea and 8 offshore the Antarctic peninsula as part of the Southern GLOBEC project funded by the National Science Foundaton.  Moore became an affiliate of the Zoology Department, University of Washington (UW) last year, and has joined a team of UW scientists conducting a long-term study of Magellanic penguins at Punta Tombo, Argentina.  All of these pursuits are linked by Dr. Moore’s interest in biological oceanography and the behavioral ecology of animals that live in the ocean.

 
McEntire, Weinberg Receive Bronze Award

Scott McEntire and Kenneth Weinberg of the Center’s Resource Assessment and Conservation Engineering (RACE) Division were awarded the NOAA bronze medal award in the Scientific and Engineering Achievement category for their development of the bottom contact sensor for use on bottom trawls.

 
AFSC Staff Named Employees of the Year

The following  AFSC  staff received NMFS Employees
of the Year awards.

• Clerical/Secretary: Dodie Pickle
• Administration/Technical Support: Lori Budbill
• Professional GS12//III and below: Paul Anderson
• Professional GS13/IV and above: Frank Morado
• Management/Supervisory: Russ Nelson.

AFSC Quarterly
Research Reports
Oct-Dec 2001