Meet our three new graduate students
We are back to in-person classes, a busy campus, and a full lab. We’re thrilled to have Ali Gladwell (MSc), Sharon Kay (MSc), and Kevin White (PhD) join our lab group this year, and we asked a few questions to get to know them a bit better.
What is your study system?
Ali: I am working to investigate the rate of non-compliance and boater behaviour in relation to Marine Mammal Regulations and Guidelines, focussing on Humpback Whales and Northern Resident Killer Whales in the Northeast Vancouver Island region. This project aims to inform MMR and DFO policy, and to advise and direct education delivered by our project partners, the Marine Education and Research Society (MERS, which started this project).
Sharon: I will be working with aerial photographs of Northern Resident Killer Whales to understand how social dynamics in and outside familial groups might influence a family’s health (as estimated by body condition). In addition, I will investigate how prey sharing within these social dynamics may have shaped the evolution of their complex social systems.
Kevin: I work in the coastal mountains of southeastern Alaska, a stormy and tempestuous region characterized by abundant rain and snow, temperate rainforest and snowy, and avalanche-prone peaks. Within this context I am interested in mountain goats, a remarkable species with specialized mountain-living adaptations that are highly sensitive to change in environmental conditions and human disturbance.
How did you get involved in conservation science?
Ali: This question could lead me from undergrad or all the way back to being a kid! I got really involved with my environmental club in high school, and have always had a love for the ocean. I went to Dalhousie to get a BSc Hons in Marine Biology, and although Biology is my technical background, I have always had the lens of conservation through my research and an aim to find creative solutions to manage human interactions with complex ecosystems. I also spend almost all my free time recreating in the outdoors, and I hope to return that joy that I have received from those experiences back into conserving the places where I spend my time.
Sharon: I got involved in conservation by working in the ecotourism industry as a wildlife guide, operating tours and leading education on the wildlife and wild places up and down the British Columbia coast.
Kevin: I got my start as an undergraduate field research technician working on a long-term study on northern spotted owl population ecology in the Klamath mountains of northwestern California. As luck would have it, this experience indirectly led to an opportunity to conduct a moose-centric predator/prey ecology MSc graduate project in the Talkeetna Mountains in Alaska. This experience eventually springboarded me into a career working as a wildlife research biologist in coastal Alaska that involved implementing mountain goat, moose and Sitka black-tailed deer field studies focused on addressing a wide variety of conservation issues.
What are you most excited about for this upcoming year?
Ali: I graduated from my BSc in 2019, and have been out of the research and academic sphere for 3 years. I am SO excited to be back and involved in an intersection among research, management and education, with some awesome field work in one of my favourite areas. I am also very excited to learn a lot from my lab mates, Chris, and the other amazing people in the Geography Department.
Sharon: To learn from and work in collaboration with the people and projects in the ACS lab, my partners at Ocean Wise Conservation Association, and Raincoast Conservation Foundation.
Kevin: The nice weather in Victoria! I am even more excited about working with colleagues at the ACS lab, University of Victoria and beyond to learn about and conduct interesting and meaningful research that will advance our conservation capabilities.
Describe your wildest/funniest/craziest field experience in three or four words.
Ali: Storm-petrel vomit in face
Sharon: Baby Porpoise Head
Kevin: Mountain goat parkour
Looking forward to another great year,
The ACS Lab
