Fernando R. Elorriaga-Verplancken

I am a full time professor at CICIMAR-IPN, Vicepresident of the Mexican Society for Marine Mammalogy (SOMEMMA, AC), Coordinator of the Mexican Marine Mammal Stranding Network, and I am also the researcher in charge of the group PINNVEST (Investigación de Pinnípedos) at his institution. My main research lines are related to population and trophic ecology of the four pinniped species (California sea lion, Guadalupe fur seal, northern elephant seal, and harbor seal) that inhabit islands in the Mexican Pacific and Gulf of California, Mexico. Much of my effort is focused on the use of stable isotopes of nitrogen and carbon to infer trophic ecology and understanding the effects of climate change (e.g. El Niño and The Blob) on these pinnipeds and occasionally other marine mammal species. I am also having collaborations with other research groups, adding health assessment and telemetry on Guadalupe fur seals and California sea lions, the effect of tourism on sea lion rookeries, and abundance estimation using aerial unmanned vehicles. My role as coordinator of the Mexican Stranding Network has allowed me to do research with other colleagues, analyzing extraordinary events, and their ecology, in relation to different marine mammal species (pinnipeds and cetaceans).

May 2017