“Exploring the intimate lives of sperm whales through imagery, education, and dynamic citizen science.”
Who We Are
Susan Bird
Susan Bird is a highly-accomplished technical and science diver who has volunteered her expertise in support of scientific projects in countries around the world. Her exploration of ancient human remains in an underwater cave in Mexico has been featured in Nat Geo, NOVA, and Drain the Oceans. She taught SCUBA diving for fifteen years in Monterey, California, and as the president of a technical diving organization she developed a collaborative, community-based program to map and document local dive sites.
Her fascination with cetaceans was sparked by an early childhood experience of swimming with a bottlenose dolphin in the wild. For the past three decades, Susan has spent countless hours encountering and studying numerous species of dolphins and whales in oceans all over the planet. While studying sperm whales in Dominica in 2012, she was inspired to create a catalog to help identify individual whales as seen from underwater. That catalog has evolved into a comprehensive study of the Eastern Caribbean whale population.
Throughout her career, Susan has provided photos and video footage of cetaceans to a wide variety of marine conservation organizations and commercial entities in support of their documentary endeavors. She continues to volunteer her time and expertise to promote ocean conservation and has filmed all of the visual imagery on the website, except for the few images where she is featured working.
In her professional life Susan is a Clinical Hypnotherapist and Auric Alignment Therapist who has an international client base. In addition to receiving her B.S. from Stanford University, Susan attended postgraduate school in Anthropology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and also spent a year studying art and design at the SF Academy of Art Institute.
Tom Conlin
For the past 31 years Tom has had the privilege of working with humpback whales on the Silver Bank in the Dominican Republic. He has devoted his life to learning whale behavior and creating an ecotourism program to introduce guests to the underwater world of marine mammals. In conjunction with the government of the Dominican Republic, he developed an internationally recognized set of guidelines to facilitate ‘passive in-water whale encounters’, that prioritizes safety for participants while preserving the well being of the whales.
Tom is a licensed 1600-ton U.S.C.G. Master, Master Diver Trainer, Advanced Freediver, and serves as an Advisor to the Center for Coastal Studies as well as to SeaLegacy. He has a thorough understanding of our oceans, above and below the surface of the water. His day-to-day, year-to-year involvement with the whales has provided unparalleled knowledge and experience which he brings to our project work in Dominica.
Pernell Francis
Pernell is a Whale Research Specialist and is the owner of Ocean Marine Mammal Adventures. He was born and raised in Dominica and has been working as a guide to locate sperm whales and collect data for scientific research efforts for the past 18 years. As an acoustic specialist, he utilizes a multi-directional underwater hydrophone to determine the distance, direction, and number of whales in the vicinity. He also captures topside photographs for fluke identification and maintains an extensive database of logged surface observations.
Pernell has collaborated with researchers on numerous endeavors including the Dominica Sperm Whale Project and has lent his expertise to film projects including BBC Oceans Giants, National Geographic’s Secrets of the Whales, Discovery Channel’s Shark Week 2022, and to French and German documentaries. He has co-authored several published scientific papers and is currently a member of the Explorers Club.
His ultimate goal is to create a research establishment in Dominica centered on the sperm whale families who frequent the area. Pernell is an integral part of our work on the Eastern Caribbean population, acting as both an expert guide and our resident advisor.
Leonardo S. Laguna
Leonardo has a bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology from the Cientifica del Sur University, Peru. His passion for the digital and plastic arts combined with curiosity about the submarine world has contributed to his development of scientific and naturalist illustration as a tool for actualizing his desire to make science accessible to the public. With more than 4 years of experience as an artist, he has managed to create illustrations of a wide variety of marine species specializing in the depiction of marine mammals and cart genos fish.
Leo is responsible for providing all of the illustrations on the individual whale pages, as well as the majority of anatomical depictions of the whales found in various areas of the website.
Rio Saress
Rio Saress is a fine artist who specializes in the lifelike representation of fauna and flora. Innovative and inquisitive, she expresses her talent over a broad range of mediums, often incorporating organic material as a backdrop to her creations. She has honed a revolutionary painting technique that captures the interplay of light and color in a way that replicates an effervescent quality found only in nature. This method is ideally suited to portray the wings of butterflies, scales of fish, and the sunlit skin of cetaceans.
Aligned with her passion for ocean conservation, she now lends her artistry to bring marine mammals to life with breathtaking beauty. Her work can be found in private galleries, and she is represented at nationally renowned art shows including the Ft Lauderdale Boat Show. Rio Saress produces custom artwork upon request, and created the original artwork for our logo. Her artwork will be available as we create SWD merchandise in the coming months.
SWD Core Values
Connection
ONE
Appreciation
TWO
Respect
THREE
Connection invites
Appreciation. Appreciation
inspires Respect.
Commitment
FOUR
Collaboration
FIVE
Excellence
SIX
