Our Lab
Our lab is in the Fisheries Research Building on the University of Washington campus. Our research covers both local and global ecosystems and we work with local, national, and international collaborators to study marine mammals spanning the tropics to the poles.
The University of Washington is located on the ancestral lands of the Coast Salish and Duwamish peoples, which touches the shared waters of all bands and tribes in the Squamish, Tulalip, and Muckleshoot Nations, and after many generations is now known as Seattle, WA.
Through our field research, we work on the ancestral lands of multiple different Indigenous peoples. These people are the historic and – in many cases – current stewards of the species we study. We are grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the stewardship of marine mammals and their ecosystems.
OUR TEAM
Arial Brewer
PhD Student, Year 3
Arial earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2010, and is a marine mammal biologist at NOAA focusing on the acoustic ecology and behavior of cetaceans.
Arial has previously worked as a marine mammal trainer and field biologist and has participated in marine mammal surveys off the coasts of Mexico, California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Alaska and Hawaii.
At SAFS, Arial is investigating the vocal behavior, kinship, and microbiome variability of the endangered Cook Inlet beluga whale population in Alaska.
Tania Valdivia Carillo
Postdoctoral Scholar
Tania is a Mexican biologist with a Ph.D. in Marine Ecology from the CICESE (Mexico) and a Master's in Use, Management, and Conservation of Natural Resources from CIBNOR (Mexico).
Tania has previously participated in projects applying eDNA-methods for biodiversity characterization in the Gulf of California and the Mexican Caribbean and for detecting and monitoring the endangered vaquita porpoise. She has also worked in population genomics and seascape/landscape connectivity evaluation using network analyses and ecological niche models.
As a Postdoctoral Scholar, Tania is working with the MMARINeDNA team to investigate the 3D spatial distribution of marine mammals and their prey in the California Current System.
Sophie Garrote
Undergraduate intern
Sophie is currently a sophomore at the University of Washington working toward a Bachelors of Science in Environmental Science and Resource Management with a minor in Freshwater Science.
She has been working with the W.A.D.E. Lab to calculate mutation rates of various cetacean species using whole genome data. This is her first experience in bioinformatics and marine mammal research.
