Lindy Weilgart, Ph.D.

Senior Ocean Noise Expert

Lindy Weilgart has been specialising in underwater noise pollution and its effects on cetaceans since 1994. She has studied whales since 1982, primarily sperm whales, and her M.Sc. (Memorial University of Newfoundland), Ph.D. (Dalhousie), and post-doctoral studies (Cornell) were all in the field of whale acoustic communication in the wild. Lindy Weilgart spent one year sailing 50,000 km across the Pacific and back in a 13 m sailboat following groups of sperm whales for her post-doctoral research on dialects. Her then 5 year old son and 10 months old daughter accompanied her. Lindy has served as invited expert on several panels, workshops, and committees concerned with underwater noise impacts (e.g. Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, U.S. Marine Mammal Commission, International Whaling Commission, etc.). She has met with members of NATO, the European Parliament, the European Commission DG Mare, the Convention on Biodiversity, and the United Nations to discuss ocean noise issues, given many lectures on this topic and others, and published numerous peer-reviewed papers. She is currently an Adjunct in the Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Canada, and was previously employed as Scientific Advisor by the private foundation Okeanos. She also served as Scientific Advisor for the International Ocean Noise Coalition of which OceanCare is a founding member, and is a Scientific Expert on the German government’s Antarctic Commission. Since 2002, Lindy Weilgart acts as a Senior Ocean Noise Expert and scientific advisor to the invisible pollution programme at OceanCare.