Peter is a cetacean ecologist with an
extensive background in cetacean field
research and sea bird health parameter
studies. A native of the Swedish island of
Gotland in the Baltic Sea, Peter’s keen
interest in the marine environment led him
to pursue a B.Sc. in Marine Biology at
Hawaii Pacific University and a M.Sc. in
Marine Biology at the University of Alaska
Fairbanks.
As
part of the science staff at Oceanwide
Science Institute Hawaii, Peter worked on a
seabird nesting monitoring project and
participated in aerial and boat based
surveys of odontocetes around the island of
Oahu. Peter worked as Graduate Student
Assistant at the Alaska SeaLife Center from
2001 to 2005 investigating stress hormone
concentrations in declining sea bird
populations in coastal Alaska. At the
center, he also volunteered his time in the
marine mammal rehabilitation center working
with a variety of pinniped species. He spent
the summers of 2002 and 2003 working as a
North Gulf Oceanic Society field biologist
in the Aleutian Islands. His
responsibilities were to collect
photo-identification, acoustic and biopsy
sampling data of killer and humpback whales
in the area and to assess transient killer
whale predation patterns. In 2004, Peter was
part of a scientific expedition along the
coast of the Kamtchatcka Peninsula in the
Russian Far East. During the expedition
Peter worked as part of SPLASH,
an international cooperative effort to
understand the population structure of
humpback whales across the North Pacific and
he collected humpback whale
photo-identification and biopsy samples. As
part of the
Russian Killer Whale Survey Program with the
Alaska SeaLife Center, he collected
population data on killer whales in the
Bering Sea.
After moving to Massachusetts in 2005, he
worked (1) as research scientist for the
Whale Center of New England out of
Gloucester, MA, doing photo-ID work on
humpbacks and fin whales in Stellwagen Bank
National Marine Sanctuary, (2) as an
observer on the New England Aquarium right
whale research team conducting aerial
surveys of North Atlantic right whales in
their calving grounds in northern Florida,
(3) as an observer for the Provincetown
center for Coastal Studies conducting aerial
surveys for North Atlantic right whales in
Cape Cod Bay, MA, and (4) as an Endangered
Species Observer for commercial dredging
operations on the east coast of the United
States, monitoring for incidental takes of
threatened species such as marine turtles,
sturgeons and sharks. Peter also worked as
Field Director on an Earthwatch Institute
sponsored, long-term study of Pacific
coastal bottlenose dolphins and sea otters
in Monterey Bay, California.
Peter currently lives in Wilmington, North
Carolina, and works for the University of
North Carolina Wilmington as the aerial
survey coordinator for a US Navy sponsored
study investigating marine mammal and sea
turtle abundance and distribution in the
proposed future site of the Under Sea
Warfare Training Range (USWTR) in Onslow
Bay, NC. In addition, Peter is an avid diver
and have been diving in multiple and diverse
locations around the world for the past 19
years.
