NMMF Employee Highlight: Gabi Alongi
Gabi Alongi did not grow up near the ocean. But after a fateful school trip to San Diego in the 6th grade, she became fascinated with whales and how they lived their lives, eventually finding the field of whale acoustics. Gabi went on to earn a Bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Master’s degree in Marine Mammal Science from the University of St. Andrews in St. Andrews, Scotland. This past February 2026, she reached her 10-year anniversary with the Foundation.
Gabi shared with us what she’s been working on over the last 10 years while tracking mysterious whales in Hawai’i, how a kind stranger at SeaWorld (and a mean seagull) put her on this career path, and what her hopes are for the future of marine mammal conservation.
National Marine Mammal Foundation (NMMF): Gabi, congratulations on reaching 10 years at the Foundation! How did you get involved with NMMF?
Gabi Alongi (GA): I applied for a Marine Resource Specialist position back in 2015, which I did not get, but NMMF kept my resume on file. My government sponsor got my resume from (the Foundation) when she was looking for a research assistant, and even though her initial interest may have been due to a misunderstanding of my resume (she was under the impression I had been a PhD student at Scripps (Institute of Oceanography) when I had, in fact, only participated in a one-day research cruise), she must have still thought I’d be a good fit, and so here we are!
NMMF: You grew up pretty far from the ocean, in Kansas and then Arizona. What first sparked your interest in marine mammals and marine biology?
GA: I grew up pretty much as far from the ocean as you can get, both in terms of distance (Kansas) and biome (Arizona). I am also prone to seasickness and yes, it is devastating.
One of my earliest memories (must have been about five years old) is visiting my grandparents in Cape Cod and going to some museum. They had a small interactive exhibit where you could pick up seashells and “listen” to them, and they were wired up to play back whale sounds. I was interested in other things in passing after that (astronomy, mathematics, law), but that moment stuck with me until a field trip to San Diego in the sixth grade. We went on a (unsuccessful) whale watch, poked a bunch of wild-caught invertebrates, and went to SeaWorld. At SeaWorld, a very kind stranger gave me a fish to try to feed to one of the dolphins – an opportunity of unprecedented excitement for a ten-year-old in the midst of realizing they wanted marine mammals to be their career. As I reached out with the fish to have this sublime interaction with a beautiful creature, a seagull swooped down and snatched it right out of my hand, biting my finger and drawing blood in the process. So I learned that seagulls are opportunistic jerks. I have also since learned that bottlenose dolphins are also jerks and will beat up harbor porpoises for fun, so I also learned to appreciate your young and naive perception of magic while you have it and be entertained by its loss when you’re older. Pretty much from then on I pursued whale biology, and eventually whale acoustics (once I learned that was an option), with pretty single-minded focus.
NMMF: Can you describe your role at the Foundation, and what animals your work focuses on?
GA: I am a programmer and bioacoustic analyst for the Whale Acoustic Reconnaissance Project (WARP). My primary ongoing project involves long-term passive acoustic monitoring of whale species (a variety of baleen whales, as well as beaked, sperm, and killer whales) off of Kauai, Hawai’i using the Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF; a large array of hydrophones). Every year we run a suite of custom algorithms (Navy Acoustic Range WHale AnaLysis or NARWHAL) on that year’s raw acoustic data to get various metrics of whale presence: tracks (animal movements) or groups depending on the species, and acoustic characteristics which we can compare to past years (we have data going back to 2006!).
We also use that information to monitor and report whale presence before, during, and after (Navy) training and testing activities on the range. My role in the project is to maintain our computers and other lab equipment, catalog and maintain back-ups of the data, and process the data through the algorithms, performing data quality checks and post-processing steps as needed. I also do a lot of algorithmic development and improvements and support other lab projects when we are not amidst our annual push for our primary project (like a recently completed long-term analysis of fin whale song patterns, for example).
NMMF: Have there been any stand-out moments you have had while working with all of that whale acoustic data?
GA: One of our beaked whale detectors targets what is known as the Cross Seamount beaked whale, and no one knows what species it is. It produces a signal that looks enough like a beaked whale signal that everyone assumes it is a beaked whale, but beyond that, no one knows what species produces the sound because it only occurs at night. In August 2023, we had a chance to coordinate with a research vessel on PMRF to attempt to identify the species. The idea was that WARP would monitor detections from PMRF’s on-land facility starting at sunset and, once found, direct the vessel to the area and help them maintain proximity until dawn when we would, hopefully, get a glimpse. We had a couple days to attempt this and it meant, of course, sleeping all day and being awake watching for beaked whale clicks all night. The very first night we successfully found a Cross Seamount beaked whale group and helped the vessel stay on them all night until about 3:30 AM. Unfortunately, at this time, a killer whale group started emitting their calls elsewhere on the range, which was followed by a complete cessation of calling by the beaked whales. The killer whales were there again the following nights, so we were never able to find the beaked whales again, let alone try and identify the species. At least the research vessel we were working with got some exciting killer whale data out of the adventure, and I had some fun being a whale-hunting vampire for a couple days, even though it meant being trapped in a freezing room staring at a computer and not seeing any whales whatsoever.
NMMF: The broader mission of the Foundation is to improve and protect life for marine mammals, humans, and our shared oceans through science, service, and education. Can you tell us how your work connects to those goals?
GA: Our ability to monitor whales long-term (two decades now!) with a large hydrophone array is completely unparalleled in the field. The scope, and especially our ability to track baleen whales, allows us to establish a huge wealth of information about baseline swimming and calling behavior for multiple species, which can help inform conclusions made in much smaller (like single hydrophone) studies. We can also get a sense of baseline (behavior) which is enormously helpful for putting behavioral responses to anthropogenic activity into context. In some cases, we are able to get some sense of how different populations might interact and overlap, which could have repercussions for defining and understanding stocks. Furthermore, because our acoustic data is maintained and preserved, as we continue to add capabilities and improve our existing tools (for example, a recent addition of a tropical bottlenose whale detector) we can revisit previous decades of data and continue to accumulate information and acoustic context. Information is power when it comes to knowing enough about marine mammals to be able to protect and support them and our oceans.
Also, a lot of the struggles I encounter day-to-day are pretty representative of the love, dedication, and perseverance that I think we all have for our work. I spend every day swimming in petabytes of data, trying to comb through it all for cohesive information on cetacean acoustics, and a significant proportion of that work is simply fighting with computers and other electronics that simply do not want to work. So as I am sitting at my computer, twiddling my thumbs while a multi-day “chkdsk operation” runs to try and salvage data lost from a power outage while an air conditioner blows frigid air down the back of my neck – it’s all because I love these animals. I guess that pretty much captures the spirit of NMMF’s work.
NMMF: If you weren’t working in this field, what do you think you would be doing?
GA: Nowadays, my answer would be something related to computer programming, which I think is just so, so fun. However, I only learned as much as I do about computer programming because of being in this field. So absent that introduction, probably astronomy or something else really mathematics heavy (which was my favorite subject in school).
NMMF: This field, and marine science in particular, has had a bumpy few years in terms of funding and protections for animals and ecosystems being stripped away. What keeps you motivated when the challenges feel overwhelming?
GA: Knowing that I’m not alone and that we are all working to improve the lives of marine mammals and the ecosystems and world we all live in keeps me motivated. This is not really a field for those who are self-serving. We could all have chosen to do something else with our skills, but we chose to invest them in something bigger than ourselves, and I like to believe that everything we do helps push that needle of the universe toward net good.
NMMF: And where do you think the future of marine bioacoustics and marine mammal conservation is heading?
GA: I think (or would like to think) that the future of marine mammal conservation is more holistic or systems-level work. In other words, uniting different branches of conservation at different levels so we have some people who are looking and thinking creatively at population-level, then community-level, then ecosystem-level. Marine mammals are affected by so many other species and ecosystem variables (including us!) that it can feel overwhelming to contemplate or tackle it as one or even a group of scientists. You need a good balance of people who are hyper-focused and those who can coordinate and think big picture.
I also dream of far more community engagement and education, encouraging people to be more familiar with the little corners of the world they find themselves in. However, I think that in particular more easily comes with relief of much bigger systemic issues that necessitate narrowing focus to immediate survival. Sometimes marine mammal research can directly impact or work with those issues (like communities that rely on fishing), but often such issues are outside the scope or ability of marine mammal research organizations. But it is always good to keep in mind and think of ways we can make a difference within our purview!
NMMF: Finally, Gabi, if you could inspire readers to take one action for marine conservation, what would it be?
GA: In the most general sense, be kind. Kindness fuels every other action that has to do with marine conservation. Kindness means caring about and for the world around you. So in any given situation, do the kind thing. The world would be a much better place if we were all kind and could trust each other to be the same. This also underpins my more specific recommendation for the moment we are currently in: go out of your way to avoid the convenient thing. A lot of organizations profit off of convenience, and convenience is so often built on exploitation (of people and resources, including marine). This is kind of cheating, because this encompasses multiple actions under one larger idea, but shop local, avoid generative AI, use your local library, vote in all elections, and know what is going on and invest in your community.
