Elding's Research Team 2023

~ Our team consists of wildlife enthusiasts that work together to gather vital information on the wildlife in our waters under the guidance of our head naturalist Megan Whittaker and

research co-ordinator Eline van Aalderink ~

Eline van Aalderink

My name is Eline van Aalderink and I am an Icelandic/Dutch marine biologist with a specialisation in marine mammal ecology and conservation. I have been lucky enough to study whales and dolphins all over the world, and my passion for them grows with every encounter and every new finding I discover about them. The common theme in my research has (unfortunately) been that human activities are disturbing the individual wellbeing and sometimes even the health of whole populations of these incredible animals. For example, I researched how anthropogenic interference is decreasing survival chances of dolphin calves in Australia, and in Greece I supervised students that conducted research projects on the many threats that Mediterranean marine mammals face. For my master’s thesis (for which I collected data onboard Elding boats in 2019), I assessed the impacts of whaling and whale-watching on Faxaflói’s minke whales, Iceland’s economy, and society. Now, as Elding’s research coordinator, I am leading our team’s analyses of long-term data to form a complete picture of the status of Faxaflói’s marine mammals and to determine what actions our research team, our whale watching crew, and our passengers can take to save the sea.

Miquel Pons

My name is Miquel Pons. I’m French and Spanish and it’s during my summers in Spain, snorkelling all the time, looking for groupers, moray eels and octopuses that I became passionate of marine biology and that I grew a desire to study it. I studied a Master’s degree in Biodiversity, Ecology, Evolution in France with internships in Spain. I specialized during those internships on demographic analysis of dolphin populations and wrote my Master’s thesis on epizootic impact on survival of the pilot whale population of the Strait of Gibraltar. I have also been a research assistant during two summers in the Strait of Gibraltar doing field work, data collecting, research and training volunteers. During my free time I use my knowledge in biostatistics to work for an NGO, giving value to the citizen science data they gathered on sharks and rays of the Mediterranean Sea. As much as I enjoy to study wildlife through a computer, it never reaches the feeling of an encounter with a wild animal, and it’s particularly true regarding cetaceans. As a guide, I believe that it is essential to make our passengers aware of the threats upon the ecosystems and how important our actions are in respect to conservation issues.

Rebecca Roberts

My name is Rebecca Roberts and I am a marine biologist from England. I completed my bachelors at the University of Portsmouth and was accepted to do my masters in marine mammal science. For my masters, I will be using my research from Elding to study the site
fidelity and behaviour of humpback whales in 2023. During my time at university I took courses with ORCA and the BDMLR to better understand cetacean behaviour, as well as learning how to become a Marine Mammal Medic. Before coming to Iceland to study humpback whales, I was a research intern at the Sea Watch Foundation in Wales where I learned the valuable skills I have used here in Iceland. I also hope to develop my photography so being able to do photo-
identification here in Iceland has helped me improve my skills. I have always had a passion for cetaceans, even from a young age, so being able to help make a difference has been an amazing opportunity. I hope to be able to travel around the world to continue this work with conservation.