The Cetacean Ecology Research Group (CERG), known formally as the Coastal-Marine Research Group (C-MRG), was established at Massey University, Auckland under the auspices of the School of Natural Sciences (SNS) in 1999. CERG undertakes a wide array of marine mammal research within and beyond New Zealand, while supporting national research and conservation projects on turtles, sharks and seabirds.

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Our team of staff and postgraduate students investigate largely conservation and management orientated questions. Research foci include health and anthropogenic impacts affecting cetacean populations, strandings causation and response investigations and biology and life history studies. While long-term research programmes focus on common dolphins and long-finned pilot whales, the team also works on elusive Southern Ocean species including the hourglass dolphin and spectacled porpoise.

For more information see our research and publications.