Rochelle Constantine

Rochelle Constantine has an interest in applied conservation biology research, with much of her work focussing on the behavioural ecology of cetaceans. Her research has covered a variety of topics such as the effects of tourism on a variety of dolphin species, population recovery of humpback whales, habitat use and distribution of bottlenose dolphins and more recently, the effects of vessel-strike on Bryde’s whales.

Rochelle now works at the University of Auckland where she teaches biology and runs research projects on humpback and Bryde’s whales, bottlenose and Maui’s dolphins and curates New Zealand’s Cetacean Tissue Archive for molecular research on over 30 species of cetaceans that have stranded on New Zealand’s shores. Rochelle is on the executive committee of the South Pacific Whale Research Consortium and is involved in the Southern Ocean Research Partnership.

Rochelle will work as part of one of the small boat teams on the Antarctic Whale Expedition, primarily as a data recorder and photographer – taking photographs of whale fins and tail flukes to identify them.