Megan Howson is a Marine Mammal Biologist and Data Scientist at GCOOS for the CETACEAN project. The Compilation of Environmental, Threats, and Animal Data for Cetacean Population Health Analyses (CETACEAN) is a five-year collaborative project funded through NRDA Open Ocean Restoration Area funds from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, with NOAA as the Lead Implementing Trustee. The project, managed through GCOOS, is focusing on helping to restore cetacean species injured during the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, including common bottlenose dolphins, Atlantic spotted dolphins, Bryde’s whales, and sperm whales.

Howson’s role at GCOOS focuses on creating, maintaining, and updating the marine mammal CETACEAN database.

Howson has a master’s degree in Marine Biology from Texas A&M University Galveston (TAMU-Galveston). Her master’s project focused on identifying cultural patterns in behavior and acoustics across several cetacean species. She also obtained dual Bachelor’s degrees in Marine Science and Biology from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and minored in Chemistry and Psychology. She has previously worked on projects studying cetaceans in California, Namibia and Greece. Her work included population surveys, behavioral studies, acoustic analysis and updating photo-ID databases.