Roger Payne, Founder and President
Ocean
Roger Payne is best known for his discovery (with
Scott McVay) that humpback whales sing songs, and for
his since-proven theory that the calls of fin and blue whales can be heard
across oceans. He has spent forty years working to conserve whales and studying
their behavior. He has participated repeatedly in the
International Whaling Commission (IWC), and is Founder and President of Ocean
Alliance. He pioneered many of the benign research techniques used worldwide to
study live whales. The research program he founded on the behavior
of southern right whales is in its 38th season. The longest such
study, it follows over 2000 individually recognized whales. His institute’s
research vessel, Odyssey recently
returned from a five-year, global voyage to study ocean pollution, bringing
back minute skin samples from 978 sperm whales. He has been a main subject of,
(and/or written, and/or presented) over 40 television documentaries, and he
co-directed the Imax film Whales. He is a finalist for the 2008 Indianapolis Prize, and this
year’s recipient of