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The North Carolina Office of the Governor has inducted ���Ĵ�ý marine biologist Andrew Read into The Order of the Long Leaf Pine, one of the state’s highest honors. The award celebrates individuals who have made significant contributions to North Carolina and their communities through exemplary service and exceptional accomplishment.

In 1995, Read joined Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment, where he is the Stephen A. Toth Professor of Marine Biology. He also served as director of the ���Ĵ�ý Marine Lab in Beaufort, North Carolina.

“With this award, the State of North Carolina recognizes Andy for more than 30 years of service as a researcher and educator who is also dedicated to improving approaches to marine conservation,” said Lori Bennear, Stanback Dean of the Nicholas School.

As a researcher, Read focuses on marine vertebrates such as whales, seabirds and sea turtles, shedding new light on their conservation, behavior and ecology.

In 2020, for example, Read and colleagues documented the longest dive ever recorded of any mammal, by a goose-beaked whale that spent 3 hours and 42 minutes underwater before coming up for air. Previous predications based on the species’ body size and metabolic rate suggested that these medium-size whales could stay down for just over 60 minutes.

Through field research, lab work and modeling, Read has also elucidated the effects of human activities on marine vertebrates.

For example, Read and colleagues revealed that fisheries bycatch — organisms accidentally captured in fishing gear — is the greatest threat to marine mammals worldwide. Reporting in 2006, the team provided the first and, to date, only estimate showing that of marine mammals is in the hundreds of thousands.

More recently, Read and collaborators reported results from the first study investigating the between pregnancy in humpback whales and krill, a shrimp-like crustacean and dietary staple of humpbacks in the Antarctic.

The team found that variation in krill affects humpback pregnancy rates. The results suggest that krill availability will eventually temper the recovery of humpback populations, which have bounced back since commercial whaling was banned 40 years ago.

Read is now working on a paper that offers suggestions for how humpback whale research can inform krill fishery management.

“These [fishing boats] are really big vessels that are consuming enormous quantities of krill, and there’s concern about potential conflicts between that fishery and predators like seals, penguins, seabirds and [other] whales,” Read told the Nicholas School.

In late 2022, former President Joe Biden nominated Read to become commissioner for the Marine Mammal Commission, an independent agency that oversees marine mammal policies and programs carried out by federal regulatory agencies. The Senate confirmed his nomination in 2023, and Read continues in that role today.

Additionally, Read has served on the editorial boards of the academic journals Marine Mammal Science, the Journal of Cetacean Research and Management, and Endangered Species Research. He was also president of the Society for Marine Mammalogy for two years.

June 30 marked Read’s last day as director of the Duke Marine Lab, a post he held for 10 years. He remains on the Nicholas School faculty, based in Beaufort.

In becoming a member of The Order of the Long Leaf Pine, Read notes, “It’s an honor to be recognized in this fashion and to join such a distinguished list of recipients.”