Katie Moore

Work

Katie manages IFAW's Marine Mammal Rescue and Research team of six scientists and responders and more than 350 volunteers. Previously, Katie had led the Cape Cod Stranding Network (CCSN), since its inception in 1998 until the organization merged with IFAW in 2007.

Under Katie’s leadership release rates for stranded marine mammals on Cape Cod have gone from 14 to 60 percent, largely due to the team’s constant efforts to improve health assessment techniques and supportive care, and reducing response time by utilizing their highly trained volunteers. Katie leads the team in developing techniques for preventing mass strandings, resulting in a 70% success rate overall and a 96% prevention rate for Atlantic white-sided dolphins.

In Madagascar, Katie used those techniques in the efforts to attempt to move over one hundred melon headed whales from an estuary. She also provided guidance in gathering data to try to determine the cause of the incident. Katie was a member of the team of experts called to Argentina to investigate a series of southern right whale mortalities and has served as on-site coordinator during other marine mammal “unusual mortality events.”

Katie’s MMRR team is currently working on several projects to further improve stranding response – developing baseline health parameters for stranded animals, investigating the hearing ranges of stranded cetaceans and satellite tracking of released animals.

Background

Official Responder, Southern Right Whale Stranding Response, Argentina
On-site Coordinator, Unusual Mortality Event -Whales in the Gulf of Maine, National Marine Fisheries Service, USA
Acting Regional Marine Mammal Stranding and Disentanglement Coordinator, National Marine Fisheries Service, USA
Executive Director and Lead Scientist, Cape Cod Stranding Network (now IFAW MMRR)
South East Region Stranding Network Area Representative, National Marine Fisheries Service, USA
Area Representative, Marine Mammal Stranding Network, National Marine Fisheries Service, US
Member, Society of Marine Mammalogy
Cape Cod Red Cross Adult Animal Hero Award
NOAA Northeast Region Stranding Network David J. St. Aubin Award for Excellence
ICS Certification: ICS 100, 200, 300, 700

Education

Masters of Environmental Management (MEM), Duke University, USA

Bachelor of Arts (BA, Hons), Environmental Studies, Wheaton College, USA

Publications

• Barco, S.G. and Moore, K.M.T. (In Review) Handbook for Recognizing, Evaluating, and Documenting Human Interaction in Stranded Cetaceans and Pinnipeds.
• Dennison, S., Moore, M., Fahlman, A., Moore, K., Sharp, S., Harry, C., Hoppe, J., Niemeyer, M., Lentell, B. and Wells, R. (2011). Bubbles in live stranded dolphins. Proc R Soc B 2011 : rspb.2011.1754v1-rspb20111754.
• Cassoff  R, Moore KM, McLellan WA, Barco, SG, Rotstein DS, Moore MJ (2011) Lethal entanglement in baleen whales. Diseases of Aquatic Organisms. Vol. 96: 175–185, 2011
• Bogomolni AL, Pugliares KR, Patchett K, Herzig SM, Harry CT, LaRocque JM, Touhey KM, Moore MJ (2009) Mortality Trends of Stranded Marine Mammals on Cape Cod and Southeastern Massachusetts between 2000-2006. Diseases of AquaticOrganisms. 88:143-155.
• Moore M, Early G, Touhey K, Barco S, Gulland F, Wells Rehabilitation and Release of Marine Mammals in the United States: risks and benefits Marine Mammal Science 23:731-750.
• Montie EW, Schneider GE, Ketten DR, Marino L, Touhey KM, Hahn ME. 2007. Neuroanatomy of the subadult and fetal brain of the Atlantic white-sided dolphin (Lagenorhynchus acutus) from in situ magnetic resonance images. Anatomical Record 290:1459–1479.
• Pugliares, K., Bogomolni, A., Touhey, K., Herzig, S., Harry, C., Moore, M. (2007) Moore. Marine Mammal Necropsy: An introductory guide for stranding responders and field biologists. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Technical Report. WHOI2007-06. 133pp.
• Bogomolni A, Ellis J, Gast1 B, Harris R, Pokras M, Touhey K, Moore M (2006) Emerging Zoonoses in Marine Mammals and Seabirds of the Northeast U.S. Oceans'06 MTS/IEEE-Boston, Massachusetts, September 18-21, 2006 - ISBN: 1-4244-0115-1.: 9pp.