Toni G. Frohoff, Ph.D.

As Research Director with the Whale Stewardship Project, Dr. Toni G. Frohoff is the principal investigator for the study of free-ranging solitary, sociable beluga whales in Atlantic Canada who regularly interact with humans;  the first of their kind to be scientifically documented.  Dr. Frohoff has been studying marine mammal behavior, with an emphasis on stress and welfare in dolphins as well as dolphin-human interactions in captivity and in the wild, for over twenty years. She has lectured and written widely about these subjects and her work is often featured in the media internationally. Frohoff has a doctoral degree in Behavioral Biology and a master's degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences. Her research for government agencies and non-profit organizations has contributed to the revision and implementation of management and legislation protecting captive and free-ranging dolphins in several countries, including the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Belize, Mexico, Antigua, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and the United States. Currently, she is also Research Director for TerraMar Research ( www.TerraMarResearch.org). She also continues to conducted inspections of captive facilities for international agencies and governments as well as consult on free-ranging marine mammal conservation and management issues.

 

 Frohoff has most recently co-authored a chapter titled "Viewing Cetaceans: Comparing Whale Watching with Captivity", perhaps the only publication to evaluate this topic, for Marine Mammals of Costa Rica (The University of Florida Press, in press). She recently co-edited the book (with nature writer, Brenda Peterson), Between Species: Celebrating the Dolphin-Human Bond (Sierra Club Books/UC Press, 2003). She has recently written several chapters on dolphins (including one on dolphin stress) for the Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005) and one on dolphin-human interactions for the upcoming Encyclopedia of Human-Animal Relationships. She also wrote a chapter on cetaceans for the best-selling anthology, Intimate Nature (Ballantine, 1998) and contributed a piece for the book, The Smile of a Dolphin (Discovery Books, 2000).  Currently, she is co-authoring a book on dolphin behavior. In addition to publications in various scientific journals and popular magazines, she also conducted a review of the impacts of human activity on free-ranging dolphins for the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission.

 

Previous research includes conducting the first study of the behavior of captive dolphin behavior during a "swim-with-the-dolphins" program. Frohoff later compared the results of this study with those obtained during a study of free-ranging dolphins who interacted with swimmers in Florida; this represented the first research to look at the impact of swimmers on dolphins in the wild as well as the first to compare the impacts of swimmers in both settings. Other studies include research on a free-ranging, solitary, sociable bottlenose dolphin in Belize and the effects of boat and swimmer activities on groups of free-ranging, sociable spotted dolphins in the Bahamas.

Frohoff has appeared as a guest on numerous national and international television and radio shows and her work has been featured widely in publications and documentaries (including Discovery Channel, A&E, and National Geographic Explorer). She has also served on a variety of boards, task forces, and committees, including the Advisory Group for the Reintroduction of Keiko to the Wild, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's Wildlife Diversity Advisory Council, The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans L98 Scientific Panel, the National Marine Fisheries Service's Ballard Locks Pinniped-Fisheries Task Force, Board of Directors of the Island Wildlife Rehabilitation Shelter at Bloedel Reserve, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Technical Consultant Group on Southern Sea Otter Recovery, and the Mexican Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Fisheries, Programa de Recuperacón de Especies Prioritarias.