Bernd Würsig

Bernd Gerhard Würsig (born 9 November 1948 in Barsinghausen, Germany) is an educator and researcher who works mainly on aspects of behavior and behavioral ecology of whales and dolphins. Much of his early work was done in close collaboration with his wife Melany Ann Würsig (born Carballeira), He went to Ohio State University, and received a Bachelor of Science degree in zoology (minor in Germanic Literature) in 1971. Würsig went to Stony Brook University (then the State University of New York at Stony Brook), 1971–1978, in an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program with advisors in the Departments of Marine Science, Ecology and Evolution, and Neurobiology and Behavior. His advisors in the latter two, George Williams in Ecology and Evolution and Charles Walcott in Neurobiology and Behavior, had a strong influence on Würsig's career, as the former imbued him with a sense of the wonders of animal social/sexual strategies, and the latter with a lifelong appreciation for how to think about animal capabilities, relative to our own capabilities of observation with basic tools such as binoculars to sophisticated radio, theodolite, and other remote sensing techniques. Würsig's field advisor Roger Payne, the discoverer of humpback whale song and long-range communication in fin and blue whales, was his mentor during field work on dolphins in coastal Patagonia, Argentina. as a National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation post-doctoral fellow, and then became assistant professor at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, central California, where he went through the professor ranks in the 1980s, becoming full professor in spring 1989. That year, he and Melany and their two children Paul and Kim moved to Texas A&M University, where he started the Marine Mammal Research Program (now Marine Mammal Behavioral Ecology Group). from north-central California to Hong Kong and South Island New Zealand. They then went on to describe foraging strategies of dusky dolphins that herd anchovy and communicate with each other within and between groups, with an important communication mode apparently mediated by leaping.

Bernd and Melany Würsig also developed detailed non-invasive photographic recognition of dolphins, and discovered that common bottlenose dolphins, have an “open” social system of ever-changing affiliations of individuals in groups and subgroups, a now common-accepted concept for many species and populations.

Würsig also accepted two ideas of the great biologist Roger Payne, his field mentor during Ph.D. work, and expanded these throughout much of his own research. One was the development of theodolite tracking of near-shore cetaceans and boats; the other was identification photos and behavioral descriptions of animals from circling aircraft, This work led to detailed descriptions of surface foraging and social behavior, as well as the fact that bowhead whales at times feed on bottom-dwelling organisms.

Würsig and several colleagues developed and tested a bubble curtain system to reduce underwater industrial noises, and this technique has more recently received much engineering and environmental attention.

Major publications Würsig has published about 200 peer review manuscripts, but the most important are probably those that first described results of individual recognition of dolphins by dorsal fin markings, theodolite tracking, and the development of a bubble curtain system to lower the intensity of stationary underwater industrial noises. marine mammals of the Gulf of Mexico, an encyclopedia of marine mammals, biology of dusky dolphins, and a “coffee table” illustrated National Geographic book on whales and dolphins. He has written much on behavior and behavioral ecology of cetaceans, with a 1989 summary paper in the journal Science, and popular publications in Scientific American, 1979, 1988. In 1999 Würsig coauthored a paper with international colleagues and former students David Weller and Amanda Bradford on the seasonal patterns of the western gray whales off Sakhalin Island in Russia. He co-published a monograph on social ecology of delphinids, with Shannon Gowans and Leszek Karczmarski. Würsig and the marine mammal program he founded are mentioned in a book on Texas A&M at Galveston. He published an updated monograph on the marine mammals of the Gulf of Mexico. Würsig series-edited seven books by Springer Nature, Heidelberg Germany, on ethology and behavioral ecology of 1) odontocetes, 2) sea otter and polar bear, 3) eared seals and walrus, 4) true (or "earless") seals, 5) sirens, or manatees and the dugong, 6) mysticetes and 7) a discussion of human-caused problems and potential solutions, "Marine Mammals; The Evolving Human Factor". A new one on "Sex in Cetaceans: Morphology, Behavior, and the Evolution of Sexual Strategies" is edited by Würsig and Dara Orbach, also Springer Nature, due to be published Open Source in 2023.

Honors and awards 1980 Elected Fellow of Research, Explorer's Club 1986 Dean's Award for Exemplary Teaching, San José State University of California 1991 Alban Heiser Award for Conservation Activities and Education, the Zoological Society of Houston 1991-1993 Society for Marine Mammalogy, Elected President 1998 The Chairman's Award, Committee for Research and Exploration of the National Geographic Society 2001 Academy Award Nomination, Best Science Movie: IMAX movie "Dolphins"](Würsig was senior science advisor) 2001-2002 Senior Fulbright Fellow, New Zealand 2006 Awarded Regents Professorship 2008 Texas A&M University Former Students’ Award – Excellence in Graduate Mentoring 2010 Minnie Piper Professor of 2010, for Teaching and Education 2012 George Mitchell Chair in Sustainable Fisheries 2013 Designated University Distinguished Professor 2015 Texas A&M University Former Student's Award - Excellence in Teaching 2016 Elected University Distinguished Professor Emeritus 2018 American Cetacean Society's John E. Heyning Life Time Achievement Award in Marine Mammal Science 2018 Festschrift in Honor of Bernd Würsig, Aquatic Mammals Vol. 44(6):587-768. 2019 Nominated Honorary Life Member of the Society for Marine Mammalogy 2023 Mandy McMath Conservation Award of the European Cetacean Society