Gale McCullough, a former nursery school teacher and old-fashioned naturalist, delighted the 2010 PopTech audience with the story of how she had identified a whale that had journeyed an unprecedented 6,000 miles from Brazil to Madagascar by examining photographs on Flickr. She confirmed the match through marine laboratory Allied Whale’s database, earning the moniker “citizen scientist” for her discovery. She has designed whale curriculum and taught workshops for children; she has also studied various kinds of whales (humpback and bowhead) throughout the world. In addition to her work as an environmental educator, McCullough has undertaken a long-term independent study of the seal population off the coast of Maine. From 1980-2007, she worked as volunteer “flukematcher”—identifying and matching the markings on the underside of a whale’s tale—at Allied Whale and, since 2008, has been a Research Associate flukematcher and liaison with Flickr, soliciting photographs taken by people on whale watch boats to add to the growing database at Allied Whale.

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