Linda Nichol
Linda Nichol, who joined the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in 2001 as a research biologist, has worked on sea otters and cetaceans in the Pacific region. Ms. Nichol participated in field studies of marine mammals in the Canadian Pacific in 1988 as part of her master's degree on the feeding ecology of resident killer whales. Since then, she has been involved in research on monitoring killer whales through photo-identification and acoustic analysis, studied the effects of human-induced noise on harbour porpoises, and compiled whaling catch records as biological data on the evolution of large cetacean populations. She has also worked on projects involving coastal seabirds, intertidal plants and invertebrates, and environmental monitoring. Her current research focuses on the conservation status of the sea otter, which is listed as threatened under Canada’s Species at Risk Act.