| Cetacean Specialist Group chair: Randall Reeves |
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| Randall Reeves |
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Randall Reeves has been involved in cetacean research and conservation for just over 30 years. Fieldwork has taken him to the Arctic (Alaska, northern Canada and Greenland – mainly to observe narwhals and bowhead whales), West Africa (manatees), southern Asia (river dolphins, mainly in Pakistan) and South America (river dolphins) as well as many temperate parts of North America (right whales, bottlenose dolphins). More recently, Randall has spent a great deal of time in libraries and archives examining whaler logbooks and other old documents to help develop a clearer picture of what the world’s oceans were like before modern whaling. In 1997, when Randall was first appointed chair of the Cetacean Specialist Group, he was fortunate to inherit a functioning network of hardworking, dedicated colleagues whose efforts had been coordinated superbly over the preceding decade by Bill Perrin and Steve Leatherwood. The Group has continued to evolve whilst trying to manage longstanding challenges such as overhunting and bycatch in fisheries and responding to newly-recognized threats such as mortality (especially of the little-known beaked whales) caused by military sonar. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the Cetacean Specialist Group played a prominent role in drawing world attention to the plight of freshwater cetaceans, emphasizing that water development policies have profound implications for the preservation of biodiversity. The Group is intimately involved in three ongoing projects focused on Critically Endangered cetaceans – Yangtze river dolphins (baijis), Gulf of California porpoises (vaquitas) and western Pacific gray whales. “In all three cases, the animals are fully protected from deliberate harm, yet serious conflicts with human activities persist. More science will always be needed to improve our understanding of these species’ biology, behavior and ecology. However, their fates will ultimately be determined by our ability to build coalitions among interest groups, galvanize governmental support and resolve what often seem like intractable differences in human values and world views,” explains Randall. |
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