Molly Martin, MPhil

Molly earned her Bachelor of Science degree with a concentration in marine biology from the University of South Florida in 2012. She moved up to Maine to study marine mammals, bioacoustics, and environmental law at College of the Atlantic, earning a Master of Philosophy degree in 2015. She wrote her master’s thesis on the effect of ship noise on North Atlantic right whale call behavior in the Gulf of Maine, specifically in the Outer Falls region. She became a NEFOP observer for the Northeast Fisheries Observer Program in late 2016, deploying primarily on trawl, high volume, and gillnet vessels throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic. She also worked as a Protected Species Observer and Passive Acoustic Monitor for several offshore wind farm projects. She came to FMRD as a Data Debriefer in 2019, then went to the Protected Species Branch to work as an Acoustician for the Passive Acoustics Group in Woods Hole, MA. She returned to FMRD as a Data Debriefer and is currently an Incidental Take Lead for the observer program.

Her research interests are primarily bioacoustics, protected species interactions in fishing gear, and impacts of anthropogenic activities on marine mammal biology and behavior.