Title: |
Program Leader, California Current Ecosystem Program |
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Telephone: |
(206)-526-4038 |
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Address: |
National Marine Mammal Laboratory |
Current Activities
Robert DeLong is the leader of the California Current Ecosystems Program of research on pinnipeds and gray whales in Washington, Oregon and California (harbor seals, California sea lions, Steller sea lions, northern fur seals, harbor seals and northern elephant seals) His primary research interests are pinniped demography, the estimation of abundance, trends, and vital rates, and assessing the biological factors which control vital rates such as disease and competition for food and space and marine mammal -- fisheries interactions. The research program is involved in collaborations with researchers from federal, state agencies and universities in each of the coastal states in demographic studies, satellite telemetry studies of movements, distribution, and foraging behavior, disease surveillance and epidemiology and pollution ecology.
Bob began a study of pinnipeds at San Miguel Island in the California Channel Islands in 1969 and established the San Miguel Research Station which serves as the logistic base for studies of pinniped biology. The Research Station is managed in cooperation with the Channel Islands National Park.
Background
Bob joined the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in 1976, after working at the U.S. Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution for 4 years on sea bird and shorebird distribution and abundance in Alaska, the Central Pacific and the southern California and Baja California Pacific Coast. Bob completed graduate study at the University of California, Berkeley, receiving both Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Wildland Resource Science and a B.S. from Purdue University in Wildlife Conservation.