Kenneth C. Balcomb III

Executive Director and Senior Scientist, Center for Whale Research

Ken earned a BA in Zoology from UC Davis in 1963 and was hired by the US Fish and Wildlife service to be a field biologist in a whale marking program.  He pursued graduate work at UC Santa Cruz with Dr. Ken Norris, a renowned marine mammal biologist.  Ken served as an aviator and oceanographic specialist in the US Navy.  He pioneered photo identification of cetaceans, made the first known observations of living Longman’s beaked whales, and in the aftermath of a mass stranding of whales in the Bahamas in March 2000, helped prove that naval sonar kills whales.