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Marine biologist Tom Jefferson stands on a boat holding a crossbow for deploying a tracking device to marine mammals.
An orca rises slightly from the surface of the water with a green a white boat in the background

Research

Dr. Thomas A. Jefferson/Clymene Enterprises has been conducting marine mammal research since 1983, and has extensive experience in many different areas of the field.  Dr. Jefferson has published 10 books, and >160 technical papers in peer-reviewed journals and volumes, in addition to many unpublished technical reports.  He has acted as a reviewer for more than 35 peer-reviewed journals.  He has collaborated with no less than 160 colleagues from many countries in the course of his work, which has taken him all over the world.  He has extensive experience in integrating scientific research findings into ‘real world’ solutions involving issues as diverse as fisheries, oil and gas exploration and extraction, coastal development, and military operations.

 

Primary Research Interests

 

Population biology and conservation of small cetaceans

Taxonomic investigations on cetaceans

Identification of diagnostic characters for marine mammal identification

Ecology and stock discrimination of marine mammals

 

Skills

 

Marine mammal shipboard survey techniques (including 25X “big eye” binoculars)

Marine mammal aerial surveys

Shore-based theodolite-tracking

Small boat operations

Crossbow biopsy sampling

35-mm/digital photography

Passive acoustic monitoring

Marine mammal dissection/necropsy

Small cetacean tooth aging

Cetacean cranial morphometry

Mark-recapture analysis

Line transect analysis (both conventional and multi-covariate distance sampling)

 

Geographic Region Experience

 

West coast of the United States

Alaska

Canada

Gulf of Mexico

Mexico

Southeast Asia

Western Pacific Islands

Indian Ocean

West Africa

Australasia

Tropical South America

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