Cascadia Research Collective is a private non-profit research organization based in Olympia, WA and founded in 1979 that conducts scientific research and education, primarily focused on marine mammals. Cascadia takes on students currently in or admitted to Masters and PhD programs that are interested in marine mammal research and/or thinking about marine mammal research as a field of study, and works collaboratively with them to develop graduate projects that match the student’s skillsets and interests. We welcome inquiries from graduate students seeking to collaborate with our U.S. West Coast projects and our Hawai‘i research, although both projects are based in our office in Olympia. Graduate students with our West Coast office typically work with staff members to develop projects related to our long-term photo-ID and tagging databases of baleen whales (e.g., humpback, blue, and gray whales) off the US West Coast and the inside waters of Washington State. Graduate students with our Hawai‘i office typically work with staff members on projects related to our long-term studies on a variety of species of odontocetes (e.g., bottlenose dolphins, rough-toothed dolphins, false killer whales, beaked whales) in Hawai‘i. Much of this work involves using our long-term photo-identification datasets, or our extensive satellite tag datasets. Fieldwork opportunities with either research project are extremely limited.

Depending upon the student’s background, experience, skills, and schooling as well as their graduate program’s degree requirements, different paths for the internship may apply. Some students may be asked to do a three-month initial internship with us similar to undergraduates as a way for Cascadia to get to know the individual and for the individual to become familiar with our research and what projects may be of interest to them. After the three month period, a project could be selected if the candidate shows promise, engagement, and dedication. However, other students may come to Cascadia with more relevant and direct experience with marine mammal research, and may be able to start more quickly on a specific research project. For graduate programs where data collection is not a requirement, Cascadia offers a wide range of already available datasets that are ready for analysis. Fieldwork opportunities for graduate students are very limited, and students can expect a majority of their time to be spent in the office working on data analysis. Cascadia looks for hard working, independent learners with great communication skills, a strong foundation in statistics, and experience with writing results of scientific investigations. Proficiency in MATLAB, R/RStudio, and/or ArcGIS/QGIS is preferred. An objective for working with graduate students is to be able to produce publishable work. 

Contact Annette Harnish at: aharnish@cascadiaresearch.org