John Ford

40 Years of Killer Whales and our impact

About the Speaker

Born and raised on Vancouver Island, Dr. John Ford has been involved in field studies of marine mammals off Canada’s west coast since the mid 1970s.  He studied marine mammals for his BSc Honours (1976) and PhD degrees (1985) in Zoology at the University of British Columbia.  He is currently the head of the Marine Mammal Section at the Pacific Biological Station, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Nanaimo, BC.  Prior to his move to DFO in 2001, John was senior marine mammal scientist and Director of Research and Conservation at the Vancouver Aquarium.  He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Zoology and the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia. His main areas of research include the life history, ecology, behaviour and acoustic communication of cetaceans, especially killer whales.  He has studied this species both in BC and other global regions, including Patagonia, Antarctica, Alaska and Norway.  He has written or co-written numerous scientific articles and books on whales and other marine mammals and his research has been featured in television documentaries and popular magazines.  In recent years, his research has focused on the conservation status of cetaceans listed under Canada’s Species-at-Risk Act and involves assessments of population abundance and distribution, critical habitats, and foraging ecology of west coast whales.  He is a member of COSEWIC’s Marine Mammal Species Specialist Committee and the IUCN’s Cetacean Specialist Group.