Dr. Moira Brown

Roles: Special Guest

Moira Brown, lead scientist at the Canadian Whale Institute, has been studying North Atlantic right whales for over 30 years in both Canadian and U.S. waters. In 2015, when right whales were first observed in large numbers in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (GSL) she and other scientists moved their annual surveys to the region. Able to identify individual whales by the patches of roughened skin on their head; researchers discovered that the whales coming to the GSL had left traditional feeding areas in the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine. During filming in July 2021, Brown was leading the whale observation team when they came upon a recently entangled whale. As one of only five government-recognized experts in large whale disentanglement in Canada, she took charge of the situation but in all her years she had never seen a case like this. Moira Brown is Canada’s leading North Atlantic right whale scientist, providing scientific and conservation advice to marine industries and government. As senior scientist with the Canadian Whale Institute on Campobello Island, New Brunswick, she studies the population biology and demographics of North Atlantic right whales. Brown’s conservation work focuses on the human-related threats faced by right whales in Canadian waters. She was instrumental, working with industry and government, in developing conservation measures that substantially reduced the risk of vessel strikes in the Bay of Fundy and in the waters south of Nova Scotia.