As some of you know, Carole Carlson died on March 24th after a long illness. The following is taken from an obituary, the full version of which can be found here: http://www.currentobituary.com/obit/206306
--- Carole was Director of Research and Education for the Dolphin Fleet Whale
Watch, Research Associate at the College of the Atlantic (COA) and
Adjunct Scientist at the Center for Coastal Studies (CCS) with whom she
developed the first humpback whale catalog. Her research on the
pigmentation patterns used to identify individual humpback whales
continues to influence how population studies are done today. An expert
on photo-identification techniques, humpback whales and whale watching,
she received her doctoral degree in Biology and Ecology at Dalhousie
University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She collaborated educational and
conservation data collection programs for the Dolphin Fleet Whale Watch
that is the prototype of the NMFS and Whale and Dolphin Conservation’s
“Whale Sense’ Program for the Gulf of Maine, the CCS and the Stellwagen
Bank National Marine Sanctuary, also regionally in Chile, Brazil,
Argentina and Uruguay. She spent over thirty years studying large
cetaceans off the east coast of the United States, Puerto Rico,
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, the Dominican Republic and the
Eastern Caribbean.
She was Co-Chair of the Scientific Committee of the International
Whaling Commission on Whale-watching and facilitated the Antarctic
Humpback Whale Catalogue archived at the COA. She organized and
conducted international, local and regional whale-watching workshops and
operators training programs on whale watch guidelines and regulations
for Puerto Rico, Bonnaire, Dominica, Iceland, St Lucia, South Africa,
Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Oman and the USA. She authored scientific
papers as well as education materials for distribution in the United
States, the Wider Caribbean Region, Japan, Taiwan and South America.
Carole promoted the Protocol Concerning Specially Protected Areas
and Wildlife (SPAW) of the Cartegena Convention of the United Nations
Environmental Program (UNEP) and helped draft its Marine Mammal Action
Plan. Other affiliations: Board of Director of Pacific Whale Foundation,
Scientific Advisor for: International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW,)
Cetacean Society International, Centro de Conservation Cetacea, Right
Whale Project of Uruguay, Whale Conservation Institute, Argentina,
Brazilian Right Whale Project, and UNEP.
And lastly, she was Executive Director of the Peaked Hill Trust, a
conservation organization for the Natural Heritage Cultural Community of
Dune Shacks in the Cape Cod National Seashore. ---
I would note that Carole was recognized for her work - and warm presence - at the IWC in a remembrance held during the recent Scientific Committee meeting in Slovenia; the tributes are on video here: