William F. Perrin

William F. Perrin
Born(1938-08-20)August 20, 1938
Died(2022-07-11)July 11, 2022 (aged 83)
OccupationMarine Mammal Biologist

William F. Perrin (August 20, 1938 – July 11, 2022)[1] was an American biologist specializing in the fields of cetacean taxonomy, reproductive biology, and conservation biology. He is best known for his work documenting the unsustainable mortality of hundreds of thousands of dolphins per year in the tuna purse-seine fishery of the eastern tropical Pacific.[2] This work became a primary motivation for the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act (1972). His work on cetacean taxonomy was acknowledged in 2002 when a newly recognized species of beaked whale, Perrin's beaked whale (Mesoplodon perrini), which was named in his honor (Dalebout 2002).[3]

  1. ^ IN MEMORY OF WILLIAM F. (BILL) PERRIN, (1938-2022)
  2. ^ NOAA Fisheries – Office of Protected Resources. "The Tuna-Dolphin Issue". noaa.gov.
  3. ^ Dalebout, Merel L.; Mead, James G.; Baker, C. Scott; Baker, Alan N. & van Helden, Anton L. (2002): A New Species of Beaked Whale, Mesoplodon perrini sp. n. (Cetacea: Ziphiidae), Discovered Through Phylogenic Analysis of Mitochondrial DNA Sequences. Marine Mammal Science 18(3): 577-608. doi:10.1111/j.1748-7692.2002.tb01061.x PDF fulltext