Edward J. Gregr, M.Sc.
Researcher

M.Sc. 2000. Zoology. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia.
B.Sc. 1992. Computer Science, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia.

tel: 604-822-6557
fax:604-822-8180
email: gregr@zoology.ubc.ca

Biography

 Edward's thesis work consisted of a detailed analysis of the historic whaling records from coastal British Columbia whaling stations. Seasonal and annual trends elucidated the population effects of commercial whaling on the large whale species (blue, fin, sei, humpback and sperm) and provided some information on how these species may have used British Columbia waters. A predictive model of "critical habitat" provided additional information on habitat use, and provided the basis for a number of hypotheses regarding the formation and persistence of marine mammal habitats off Canada's West Coast.


Prediction of Steller sea lion habitat in the North Pacific. From Gregr and Trites, in review.

Ed recently returned to the Marine Mammal Unit after a diversion of several years in consulting where he focused on building decision support systems for clients in government and industry. Ed returned to the unit in November 2002 to pursue the modeling of marine mammal - habitat relationships and in particular to develop methods to explore the competition between Steller sea lions and commercial fisheries. Ed continues to work with provincial and federal agencies on species-habitat relationships to support endangered species research and to develop marine sensitive area descriptions.

Publications

Berman, M., E.J. Gregr, G. Ishimura, R. Coatta, R. Flinn, U.R. Sumaila and A.W. Trites. 2008. Economic valuation of critical habitat closures. In Fisheries Centre Research Reports. Vol 16(8) pp. 102 (PDF)

Gregr, E.J. and R. Coatta. 2008. Environmental data for the eastern North Pacific and Bering Sea. Fisheries Centre Research Reports Vol 16 pp. 79 (PDF)

Gregr, E.J. and A.W. Trites. 2008. A novel presence-only validation technique for improved Steller sea lion Eumetopias jubatus critical habitat descriptions. Marine Ecology Progress Series 365:247-261. (PDF)

Gregr, E.J. and K. Bodtker. 2007. Adaptive classification of marine ecosystems: identifying biologically meaningful regions in the marine environment. Deep-Sea Research Part 1 54:385-402. (PDF)

Trites, A. W., A. J. Miller, H. D. G. Maschner, M. A. Alexander, S. J. Bograd, J. A. Calder, A. Capotondi, K. O. Coyle, E. D. Lorenzo, B. P. Finney, E. J. Gregr, C. E. Grosch, S. R. Hare, G. L. Hunt, J. Jahncke, N. B. Kachel, H.-J. Kim, C. Ladd, N. J. Mantua, C. Marzban, W. Maslowski, R. Mendelssohn, D. J. Neilson, S. R. Okkonen, J. E. Overland, K. L. Reedy-Maschner, T. C. Royer, F. B. Schwing, J. X. L. Wang and A. J. Winship. 2007. Bottom-up forcing and the decline of Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) in Alaska: assessing the ocean climate hypothesis. Fisheries Oceanography 16:46-67. (PDF)

Trites, A. W., V. B. Deecke, E. J. Gregr, J. K. B. Ford, and P. F. Olesiuk. 2007. Killer whales, whaling and sequential megafaunal collapse in the North Pacific: a comparative analysis of the dynamics of marine mammals in Alaska and British Columbia following commercial whaling. Marine Mammal Science 23:751-765. (PDF)

Flinn, R.D., A.W. Trites, E.J. Gregr and I. Perry. 2002. Diets of fin, sei and sperm whales in British Columbia: an analysis of commercial whaling records, 1963-1967. Marine Mammal Science 18:663-679. (PDF)

Gregr, E.J. and A.W Trites. 2001. Predictions of critical habitat for five whale species in the waters of coastal British Columbia. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 58:1265-1285. (PDF)

Gregr, E., L. Nichol, J. Ford, G. Ellis and A.W. Trites. 2000. Migration and population structure of northeast Pacific whales off the coast of British Columbia: analysis of commercial whaling records from 1908–1967. Marine Mammal Science 16:699-727. (PDF)

Gregr, E.J. 2000. An analysis of historic (1908-1967) whaling records from British Columbia, Canada. MSc thesis, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC. 104 pages (PDF)