 Valentina Vivaldelli studied marine biology at the University of Bologna, Italy. She wrote a thesis in collaboration with ICRAM
(Central Institute for Applied Marine Research) on finback ecology and physiology, and over the last 3 years has gained experience working as
a field biologist at the Tethy Institute. She is currently continuing her studies at the University of Ancona, Italy.
She started an internship with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society in North America in September 2007. Valentina is studying humpback whales in their feeding grounds around Massachusetts and she will use this data, in conjunction with existing data from over twenty years of research, to study habitat use in the Caribbean Sea surrounding the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Valentina is interested in comparing how the three countries in which she has worked as a whale biologist differ regarding whale and ocean conservation and management. WDCS is looking forward to the completionof her project and subsequent master thesis, as it will help us protect whales on the breeding phase of their annual migration.
 Rosalie e'Silva studied law at Kingston University, UK and Lyon
University, France. She then completed a legislation internship at
International Fund for Animal Welfare in Brussels, Belgium focusing
primarily on maritime safety. After gaining a postgraduate
qualification in international trade law in Turin, Italy, she worked
at an international law firm in Frankfurt, Germany.
Wishing to continue working in animal welfare, she moved to London, UK
and started employment with the World Society for the Protection of
Animals. She reviewed animal protection legislation and co-ordinated
activities for a network of over 600 animal welfare groups across the
globe.
Focusing on marine conservation and awareness specialities, Rosalie
then trained in Thailand to become a PADI scuba diving instructor. She
worked as an instructor in the Caribbean and then embarked on an
around-the-world trip before starting an internship with the Whale and
Dolphin Conservation Society in North America in September 2007.
In addition to expanding her knowledge on marine conservation issues,
Rosalie gained valuable hands-on experience in data collection for
humpback whale identification and assisted with the compilation of a
new database for North Atlantic right whale resources.
 Lindsay Bruce is WDCS UK's IT Manager. Before joining WDCS in 2002, he'd had a interesting and varied career in publishing that had absolutely nothing to do with his training as an electronic engineer; first as a graphic designer for a printing company, followed by technical writer for one of the UK's largest magazine publishers, then IT consultant for a number of small companies in the South West of England, and finally as IT Manager for a small gaming publisher. When he came to WDCS he knew absolutely nothing about whales and even less about conservation.
Time and hard work are great teachers though, and Lindsay has spent a lot of time in the field working with WDCS researchers and scientists. In the past two years he has branched into filmmaking, focusing on issues that affect whales and dolphins worldwide – hunting, bycatch, pollution and ship-strikes. He has since acquired a ludicrously expensive TV camera, and will use any flimsy excuse to go out into the field and point it at whales, dolphins or attractive young researchers.
Aside from saving the whales, Lindsay's favourite pastimes include; mountain biking, YouTube, knocking about with his mates, photography, beer, telling bad jokes and pointing at other people and laughing. He tries to combine all seven in one activity, if at all possible. He is a founding member of the Two Tunnels Group, a Bath-based cycling campaign, and is proud to have completed a number of gruelling mountain bike races in aid of charity - although he admits he's never actually won any. His life ambition is to make a feature length film about world's oceans that knocks the socks off The Blue Planet and will give the Star Wars franchise a run for its money. He'd also quite like to meet Nelson Mandela.
Lindsay spent his six-week sabbatical in the United States, filming humpback whales off Cape Cod. During this period he took over 9,500 still photographs and 15 hours footage of humpbacks, fin, sei, minke and right whales. He says it was the most fun and inspirational trip of his life, and is determined to film all the other cetacean species as soon as possible.
When not on a boat, he worked on a new sightings database and humpback catalogue for the WDCS NA research team, and re-organised their photo-ID system. Since then, the phone calls and emails haven't stopped and he admits he probably should have realised that they would never let him get away with minor improvements. Since returning to the UK office, Lindsay has been working on an ambitious project to create a universal fieldwork database, largely derived from the work he did in the US. This project is going extremely well and he is looking forward to testing it in the field.
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