Human, marine mammal, and ocean health are all interconnected. Consequently, studying the health of marine mammals provides information about human and ocean health. The focus of this project is to use existing data on marine mammal disease and mortality to document land to sea disease transmission, geographic spread of disease within the marine ecosystem, and to evaluate negative human interactions with marine mammals.

Marine mammals are some of the most contaminated animals in the world. Pollutants work their way up the food chain and cause a number of health issues in predator species like killer whales. This is because any pollution present in their food is passed on to them which continues to increase over their lifespan as they continue to eat contaminated food. Two contaminants that need to be further studied in order to protect aquatic wildlife are microplastics that result from plastic breaking down and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) that result from oil spills.