CASPIAN SEAL - Key Persons

Ivar is an observer and photographer on board the aircraft and also participates in data processing and management. Ivar is also a graduate of Tartu University. He currently works for the Estonian State Nature Conservation Centre. Like his brother Mart, he has participated in the Baltic seal surveys for the past 15 years. He joined the CISS survey team in 2007.

Lilia is an observer on board the aerial survey aircraft. From 2008 she is also a participant in the additional icebreaker and helicopter surveys. Lilia is also co-coordinator of both the CISS and Darwin projects and acts as a translator and liaison for the projects. She also helps to organise seal monitoring and conservation programmes throughout the Caspian region. Lilia is a graduate of St Petersburg University and has worked for the Baltic Fund for Nature. She has studied the behaviour and ecology of Ladoga seals and has, for many years, participated in the Baltic seal surveys.

Mart plays a central role in planning and coordinating the aerial survey. He works with the ice-specialists at Agip KCO to understand the ice formations prior to the survey and at the time of the survey. He is an observer on board the survey aircraft. Mart is a graduate of Tartu University and is a biological monitoring specialist for Vilsandi National Park. He has also worked for the Estonian Fund for Nature for many years as a conservation biologist and programme director, and his work has included surveying ringed and grey seals in the Estonian and Finnish part of the Baltic. He has participated in the Baltic seal surveys and tagging programmes over the past 15 years and has also worked in the field with Sea Mammal Research Unit in Scotland. In February 2007 Mart was elected as a Member of Parliament in Estonia.

Mikhail is an observer and photographer on board the survey aircraft. Mikhail is a graduate and currently a research scientist at the Institute of Biology, University of St Petersburg. He is a member of the Baltic Fund of Nature working group for seals. In addition to his work on Caspian seals, he is coordinator of ringed and grey seal studies in the Russian sector of the Baltic, and is also coordinator of the Ladoga seal study group.

Simon is a lecturer in evolutionary biology, based at the University of Leeds. He is Director of the Caspian seal Darwin Initiative project and principal coordinator of the overall research programme and the winter ice surveys in the northern Caspian. Simon is also developing, together with our scientific partners in each Caspian country, seal monitoring and conservation programmes throughout the Caspian. More information about Simon and his research can be found on his University of Leeds staff page.

Job Titles:

• Co - Coordinator of Both the Darwin

Sue is co-coordinator of both the Darwin and CISS projects. She has been leading the additional surveys on icebreakers and helicopter. She participates in data processing and prepares survey reports. Sue is also engaged in developing local seal monitoring and conservation programmes throughout the region, in partnership with scientific partners in each Caspian country. Originally a Glasgow University graduate, Sue is a free-lance consultant at Tara Seal Research Centre, working on seal behaviour, ecology and conservation biology, and has studied seals on both sides of the Atlantic. Sue helped to initiate the international focus on Caspian seals in 1997 and has been closely involved ever since. She is currently a Visiting Scientist at the Institute of Zoology in London.

Job Titles:

• Research Scientist at the Swedish Museum of Natural History
• Scientific Director of CISS

Tero is Scientific Director of CISS. He participates in the aerial surveys as observer and photographer, carries out the statistical analyses of the survey data, and leads the writing of survey publications. Tero is currently a Research Scientist at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, and has worked on fur seals in the Antarctic and ringed seals in Greenland. He has been project leader of harbour seal research in the Kattegat and Skagerrak since 1979, and of ringed seal research in the northern Baltic since 1988. He represented Sweden at the Antarctic Treaty negotiations and also represents Sweden at meetings of ICES, HELCOM and IWC. He is a member of the newly assembled seal team of IUCN.