In September the Center for Coastal Studies welcomed Ashley Millan Ambert as the new Flight Coordinator for our Right Whale Ecology Program.
Born in Puerto Rico, Ashley moved to Florida in high school and received a degree in Marine Biology from the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne.
Ashley’s career was boat-based to begin with. She studied dolphins in Gulfport, Mississippi, and then moved on to manatee stranding response and conservation research back in Florida. Following that, she spent three seasons as an aerial observer for the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute monitoring the North Atlantic right whale calving grounds.
As Flight Coordinator at CCS, Ashley’s job is to maintain safety equipment, collaborate with other researchers to deconflict survey areas, and closely monitor the weather forecast to schedule flights within the necessary survey parameters. “It’s very important to consider dew point spread and temperature, because that will tell me if there will be fog,” she explained.
Ashley’s first few months have been spent orienting herself to work at the Center, and undergoing required safety training. Surveys began in October, as weather permitted. The goal is to find aggregations of whales, identify individual right whales, and provide distribution and abundance information to managers and other stakeholders.
Flights are made aboard a Cessna Skymaster, with two pilots, and two observers. One observer takes photographs, and the other records data. In addition to flying along set routes to monitor whale populations, the observers also keep a sharp eye out for entangled whales. Cape Cod Bay adjacent waters are the primary survey areas though flights can cover anywhere from New Jersey to Canada.
Ashley is very excited to continue working with cetaceans. “What’s not to love, they’re just incredible!” she said. “There will be many more animals here compared to the calving grounds where I flew before. I’m also really looking forward to observing whale behavior I haven’t seen before. To be able to contribute to this huge conservation effort is just mind-boggling.”
Photo: Right Whale Ecology Program staff at Provincetown Airport, left to right: Ryan Schosberg, research assistant, data/photo manager; Amy James, research associate, aerial observer; Ashley Millan Ambert, flight coordinator, aerial observer.
