Graduate Program Affiliate

Michael Scott, PhD, was a long-time senior scientist for the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, and continues to work for that agency as a consultant on dolphin ecology research. He has conducted research on mortality reduction of dolphins in purse-seine nets, movements and diving behaviors of pelagic dolphins, and the ecological association between tuna and dolphins. His research questions have often centered around the factors that bring pelagic animals together and pull them apart. He began his marine mammal career in 1972 studying dolphin communication with David and Melba Caldwell, received his PhD from UCLA for his research on the ecology of marine aggregations, studied manatees for the US Fish and Wildlife Service and sea turtles for the National Marine Fisheries Service, and he helped found the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program which has conducted studies on coastal bottlenose dolphins in Florida for over 50 years. He is a founding member of the international Society for Marine Mammalogy and has provided advice to the National Marine Fisheries Service and Fish and Wildlife Service while serving on the U.S. Pacific Scientific Review Group. He has been a lecturer at the University of San Diego since 2011, teaching the EOS course on the Biology of Marine Mammals.