SeaWorld Fact Checkers:

Dr. Naomi A. Rose is the marine mammal scientist for the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI). She handles AWI campaigns to protect wild and captive marine mammals and has been a member of the International Whaling Commission’s Scientific Committee since 2000. She has published popular and scientific articles, authored book chapters, and lectures annually at several universities. She participates in workshops and task forces at the international, national and state level. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1992. Her dissertation examined the social dynamics of male orcas.

Dr. Ingrid N. Visser is a whale biologist who received her Ph.D. from the University of Auckland in 2000.  Her dissertation examined the New Zealand population of orcas, with a focus on their population structure and foraging behavior. She founded the Orca Research Trust in 1998, which has the mission to “Protect Orca & their Habitat, through Conservation, Education & Scientific Research.” She has published both popular and academic articles and regularly lectures around the world. Her research has been featured in a number of documentaries and books. Additionally, she co-founded the Free Morgan Foundation, a non-profit organisation creating awareness of the plight of a young female orca, Morgan, who has become the “poster child” for many of the issues related to keeping orcas in captivity.

Contributors:

Candace Calloway Whiting writes blogs on marine mammals, ocean issues, and the environment for the Huffington Post and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. She has studied marine mammals in the wild and worked with them in captivity. Her degrees are in marine mammal behavior and oceanography.