Bill Fraser
Ornithologist, expert on skuas, gulls and penguins, and slated as a live guest in Program 1. LFA 2 also thanks Dr. Fraser for his input to Activity 3.3, "From Data to Death"
...I cannot recall a time when I did not have an interest in science, which in my case involves the field of ecology. I spent the first 12 years of my life in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, Argentina but, either through family or friends, was fortunate in having access to some of the great "estancias" or ranches for which that country is known. It was on those ranches that I developed a keen interest in the out-of-doors...I quickly realized that the key to becoming better at those activities was simply to know more about the species I pursued. Thus, whatever free time I had in those early years was spent either reading about the natural world or pursuing fish and game. Although I did not recognize it as such, I had, in effect, turned to ecology to understand the animals in which I was interested....
The 1996-1997 season represents my 22nd year in pursuit of these interests and seabird ecology as the focus of my research, which now involves trying to understand how variability in the marine (the feeding habitat) and terrestrial (the breeding habitat) environments affect seabird populations at various space and time scales.
