Erin Ross-Marsh

Erin has filled a number of roles within Sea Search during her internship with us, including Education Officer, assisting at the NDP for sevreal months and more recently analysing humpback whale song data from moored hydrophones.

I’ve loved the ocean for as long as I can remember, and when it was it was explained to me what a marine biologist was, I was sold and worked toward that goal. I studied at the University of Pretoria (UP) where I received my BSc Zoology. I also received my BSc Honours in Zoology at UP working on the development of a cetacean strandings database for the Western Cape. I couldn’t stay away so I did my MSc at UP too. My thesis focused on behavioral patterns of southern elephant seals at

Marion Island, a project which allowed me the chance to tag along on the annual relief voyage to the island in 2016 (best. experience. ever!). Having been raised in Pretoria, my love of the ocean has been a long-distance relationship and I’m so grateful to have been able to work hands-on in this field for the last several years. Large baleen whales are my greatest love, especially their acoustics, and am currently conducting my PhD on the timing and structure of humpback whale song around Southern Africa.