International Marine Mammal Project at Earth Island Institute
Berkeley, California USA
June 2nd to August 15, 2025

Elena will conduct holistic assessments of the current Whale Safe program at the UCSB Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory and the in-progress program at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. Through her assessments, she will recommend how the International Marine Mammal Project can promote and provide support for whale-safe shipping campaigns to prevent ship strikes on endangered whales, including critically endangered NE Atlantic right whales. Elena will also compile a repository of marine mammal deaths in the United States from 2024 caused by marine plastic pollution. She will secure and evaluate necropsy results, news articles, and announcements from verified marine wildlife care and stranding centers to discover patterns of plastic ingestion and entanglement and attempt to determine the sources of plastic pollution.