The Ellie fund.

• Position: For New Generations of Marine Scientists - Brief Article

Ellie Dorsey would be proud. Our much-loved former CLF Staff and Senior Scientist was only 51 when she died on May 17, 2000, but her life has inspired family, friends, and colleagues to found the Ellie Dorsey Marine Conservation Fund. It will support scientific research on the subjects that most concerned Ellie: marine mammals, marine habitats, groundfish, protected areas, and the effects of fishing and fishing gear on the ocean bottom. The Ellie Fund will distribute grants to individuals, non-profit organizations, and schools, for projects dedicated to preserving and enhancing marine resources, and the livelihoods of those who rely on them -- fishermen, and their communities and organizations.

Eleanor Mayo Dorsey grew up in coastal Beverly, Mass., where her playgrounds were beaches and tide pools. She graduated from Cornell University in 1971, with a degree in psychology and linguistics, and in 1976 earned an M.S. in Marine Invertebrate Zoology and Marine Ecology from the University of Washington. She subsequently spent 11 years conducting research on whale biology and behavior at the Long Term Research Institute (LTRI) in Lincoin, Mass. During that time, she studied humpback whales in Hawaii and bowheads and belugas in the Arctic, while authoring and co-authoring 13 scientific papers on those and related topics. She also started a research program on Washington's Puget Sound, to study the behavior of minke whales. She determined that individual minkes could be identified, though not as easily as humpback or killer whales. But if one got close to a minke with a camera, and managed to get a quality photograph to study, the distinction could be made.

By 1988, Ellie's last year at LTRI, she was looking for ways to get involved in changing policy. While toying with the idea of going to law school, she heard that CLF was looking for a marine scientist. Bruce J. Stedman, her husband, recalls, "Ellie realized that working with lawyers like Doug Foy and Peter Shelley would allow her to become involved in...