Watcher of Whales

The intersection of catching fish and accidentally ensnaring endangered species is, too often, on the flipper of a North Atlantic right whale. Or the fluke of a humpback. And for decades, David Morin ’94 has been there to free these creatures from fishing gear.

Morin, a Manchester native who studied biology at UNH, is a whale biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries office in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where he oversees the whale disentanglement network for the Atlantic region. Entanglement in fishing gear is a leading threat to whales, whose habitat often coincides with prime fishing grounds.

Many entanglements are minor, as whales often escape on their own with just some scrapes. “I say it’s like running through the forest at night,” says Morin. But more serious interactions can result in tangled whales perishing from exhaustion, infection or starvation. It’s been decades, he notes, since a highly endangered North Atlantic right whale has died from natural causes; entanglements plus ship strikes have reduced that species’ number to just 330 animals.

Raised on Jacques Cousteau and National Geographic, Morin got into the “whale world” days after graduating from UNH, landing a research internship with a Gloucester whale research group. UNH fueled his passion for marine biology, he says, and a field marine science course at Shoals Marine Lab sealed the deal. “I got a taste of it at Shoals and I thought, ‘That’s what I want to do.’”

Decades into his career, Morin remains an evangelist about creature encounters. “I want people to get out and see not just whales but wildlife in the wild,” he says. “Seeing animals in nature is really fantastic.”