Kerkeslin Reid MacDonald
Honour's Student
Kerkeslin first joined the Davies Lab in 2023 as a summer lab assistant, where she helped with data processing for Ph. D student Gina Lonati’s research. The following term, Kerkeslin participated in the unique Marine Semester program in Saint Andrews, NB, offered by UNB Saint John, where she completed an independent study researching the movement patterns of translocated intertidal snails. Discovering that she enjoyed research, Kerkeslin decided to pursue an Honours project and was drawn back to the Davies Lab after being inspired by the research she was exposed to the previous summer.
Kerkeslin’s Honours research involves working towards improving the current passive acoustic monitoring techniques used to identify sei whale and blue whale presence in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by discriminating between the similar calls of these two species.
Having grown up in Nova Scotia and PEI, Kerkeslin finds comfort by the ocean and has always loved learning about marine animals. She will graduate with her Bachelor of Science, Honours in Marine Biology, in May of 2025. In the future, Kerkeslin hopes to continue to work with marine mammals, either by continuing to pursue research or by seeking employment in animal healthcare.
In her free time, Kerkeslin curls competitively and also enjoys running, hiking, paddleboarding, and spending time at the beach!
