Dear MARMAM community, On the morning of the 6 of December 2024, marine mammal scientist Dr. Eric A. Ramos passed away at his home in Sarasota, Florida. He is survived by his girlfriend Ayshah, aunts Rafaela and Nelly, uncles Jose and Victor, brothers Damien and Dorien, several cousins including Noemi and Jose, close friends Alton and Kristi, among many others, and his beloved dog, Bella. Eric completed his Ph.D. in Animal Behavior and Comparative Psychology from City University New York in 2021. In June 2024, he became a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida. He was leading projects on manatee ecology and conservation in Florida and in marine mammal acoustics and ecology in the Mexican Caribbean. Eric was born on 23 September 1987, in Brooklyn, New York. His grandparents, Antonia Rivera and Lino Ramos, were from Puerto Rico. His grandad would often take him on fishing trips and his mom, Noemi Ramos, wanted to be a marine biologist. As a result, both passed that love for animals and the ocean to Eric. Little did they know that they had ignited a spark that would turn Eric into one of the most successful marine mammalogists of his generation. At only 37, Eric was already a well-established marine mammalogist with at least 46 peer reviewed publications. He was the lead author of at least half of these contributions. Outside the peer-reviewed literature, Eric contributed to multiple book chapters, reports, and meeting documents. Over his exceptionally productive 17-year career, Eric had built a network of collaborators that brought together scientists and laymen alike from all continents. Eric’s collaborations were naturally inclusive, perhaps aided in part due to his Latino heritage and his ability to speak multiple languages. Eric’s zest for bringing so many people together to do collaborative science was a rare gift. He easily connected with people, but he also enabled many of us to connect with each other. Most of Eric's work focused on the ecology and behavior of marine mammals, primarily Greater Caribbean manatees and common bottlenose dolphins in the Caribbean region, particularly Belize and Mexico. He loved combining multiple tools to answer a question, while contributing to the design of new methods to study marine mammals. For example, he led a study combining multiple observation methods, including surface observations, drone footages, and high-resolution satellite imagery to demonstrate that common bottlenose dolphins use “mud-ring feeding” as a foraging tactic in Belize. He also used drones and acoustics to investigate manatee vocal and behavioral response to playback of conspecifics. Eric also published a long list of naturalist notes on the occurrence of marine mammals in unknown areas of the Caribbean region or along the Pacific coast of Central America. Along with his colleagues, he also documented atypical or undocumented behaviors. He discovered that rough-toothed dolphins could collectively handle and share prey off the Pacific coast of Mexico. Earlier in 2024, he published multiple reports of aggressive and fatal interaction initiated by common bottlenose dolphins towards manatee calves in Belize. Eric was a member of the Sirenian Specialist Group (IUCN Species Survival Commission) and provided expertise on manatees through the working group on Sirenians in Mesoamerica. He also served on the board of the Society for Marine Mammalogy (SMM, 2019-2022) as Student Member-at-Large. Eric’s radiant smile left an impression on everyone who met him, even if only briefly. He was very generous with his time, shared his talents, and was deeply compassionate – always willing to help. He was truly a shooting star, inspiring marine mammalogists, both juniors and seniors, and others far beyond the field. An extended review of his life, scientific contributions (including a list of his publications), and legacy was published yesterday in the Latin American Journal of Aquatic Mammals (open access): https://lajamjournal.org/index.php/lajam/article/view/1729 Jeremy Kiszka, Ph.D. (he/him) Associate Professor Institute of Environment, Coastlines and Oceans Division Department of Biological Sciences Florida International University https://environment.fiu.edu Principal Investigator, Marine Mammal Ecology Lab. https://marineconservationecologylab.com 3000 NE 151 St., FL-33181, North Miami, USA. Office (direct): (305)-919-5234<tel:(305)-919-5234> [File:ResearchGate icon SVG.svg - Wikimedia Commons] ResearchGate<https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jeremy-Kiszka/research> (publications) [cid:b5a8278b-e93e-45a4-b579-7a9768154cbb]
