News:

Science doesn’t always go smoothly. Nature included a few of our New Zealand stories about the challenges with field biology. It’s a good read, there are so many stories we can all tell.

We have been awarded a grant from the Foundation North G.I.F.T programme to work on the fine- and large-scale drivers behind the distribution of marine megafauna in the Hauraki Gulf. This ‘Pulse of the Gulf’ project builds on our previous aerial survey research and is an exciting next step in our work.

It takes a village to make a difference so receiving the Sir Peter Blake Trust Inaugural Environmental Leadership Award was a great honour. Check out the citation here.

Check out our new outputs on our publications page. The team has been busy.

We have a new MSc student – Catherine Meyer – who will work on the pilot whales, false killer whales and bottlenose dolphins who hang out together year after year during ~autumn. This work is an exciting new collaboration with Jochen Zaeschmar, part of the Far Out Research Collective.

You can still find us on Twitter @MMEG_UoA where we occasionally post things of interest.

Our Research:

Our research group has a broad range of research interests in cetacean behaviour, ecology and conservation. We use a variety of approaches to answer questions about the movement patterns, habitat use, molecular ecology, population size, acoustics, relatedness and responses to anthropogenic disturbance of several species of whales and dolphins. We also work on other megafauna such as seabirds and sharks. By using a variety of research methods and collaborations with other scientists, we have improved the understanding of several poorly studied species.

Our current research projects include Bryde’s whales, Maui dolphins, humpback whales, southern right whales and all the big things in the Hauraki Gulf. We curate the New Zealand Cetacean Tissue Archive (NZCeTA), one of the world’s largest collections of whale and dolphin tissue samples.

 

Dr Rochelle Constantine

Associate Professor School of Biological Sciences & Institute of Marine Science
e. r.constantine@auckland.ac.nz
p. ++64 9 923 5093
c. ++64 (0)274 574 909
s. rcon010