Corinne (Vegan) Gibble
M.S. Student, Marine
Science, Vertebrate
Ecology Laboratory
B.S. University of Vermont, 2003
Curriculum Vitae
cgibble @mlml.calstate.edu
I am primarily interested in food habits and foraging ecology
of marine mammals and seabirds. I did my undergraduate work at the University
of Vermont and acquired a B.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology with
a minor in Botany. I also studied with the School for Field Studies in
Baja California Sur, Mexico assessing the impacts of whale watching on
the behavior of grey whales. After I graduated from UVM I interned for
the Whale Center of New England and was fortunate enough to participate
in humpback whale behavioral sequencing research, photo identification,
and Northern right whale surveys. I joined the MLML Vertebrate Ecology
Lab in 2005, and currently work for The Central California Marine Bird
Health Study through Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and The California
Department of Fish and Game Marine Wildlife Veterinary Care and Research
Center in Santa Cruz, CA. (http://www.mwvcrc.org/content/view/56/70/)
My current research involves the food habits of harbor seals
(Phoca vitulina richardii) in San Francisco Bay, CA, through fecal analysis.
The growth rates of harbor seals in California have recently decelerated
(Hannan 1996). One group that is reflecting this growth rate deceleration
is the harbor seals inhabiting San Francisco Bay. The California Department
of Fish and Game (CDFG) aerial survey data from 1982 to 2000 indicate
no significant growth of the San Francisco Bay harbor seals when compared
to the California coast harbor seals during the same years (Grigg et al.
2004). The reasons that the number of harbor seals in the bay may not
be increasing in comparison to other areas may be attributed to a number
of different factors including: human disturbance, habitat modification,
contaminant levels in the bay, and local food depletion (DeMaster et al.
2001, Grigg et al. 2004).
Because they forage opportunistically, the diet of harbor seals may be a good indicator of prey species composition in the bay. Determining diet composition using fecal analysis is a useful means of determining potential local food source depletions, determining the impact that pinnipeds have on fish populations, assessing the impact to the ecosystems in which they inhabit, and establishing baseline information on ecosystem health.
Contact me: cgibble@mlml.calstate.edu
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