Diane Claridge

Claridge was born in Nassau in The Bahamas.^[1]

Claridge studied a bachelor's degree in environmental science at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida, United States. She completed an overseas research degree to complete a master's degree in zoology from the University of Aberdeen in Aberdeen, Scotland. She studied a PhD in biology at St. Andrews University in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland, focusing on the spatial processes in the population ecology of beaked whales.^[1]

In 1991, Claridge founded the Bahamas Marine Mammal Research Organization,^[1] based in Marsh Harbour, Abaco Islands, which she co-directs with Ken Balcomb and is supported by Earthwatch.^[2]

In 2000, Claridge found a deceased dense-beaked whale in a lagoon at Cross Harbour Creek, Abaco, which was subsequently studied in a post-mortem in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.^[3]

By 2005, Claridge and her research team of Earthwatch volunteers had documented the presence of twenty-three species of marine mammals, including beaked whales, bottlenose dolphins, hooded seals, manatees and toothed whales, for the Bahamas Marine Mammal Survey (BMMS).^[4]

Claridge contributed photography and behavioural observations of Blainville's beaked whales to the Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals (2009).^[5] Her research into mammal behaviour and marine bioacoustics has enabled the development of understanding about why Blainville's beaked whales are particularly susceptible to naval sonar.^[6][7] She has also contributed research to genomics and morphology work, which helped to reveal a new species of beaked whale.^[8]

Claridge is a director of Friends of the Environment in Abaco.^[1]

• Publications by Diane Claridge at ResearchGate