Olive is the Pacific Officer for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). Based in Samoa at the Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP), Olive leads IFAW's regional programs for the conservation of whales and the management of whale watching. She assists the implementation of SPREP's Marine Species Action Plans for Whales & Dolphins, Turtles and Dugong covering 22 Pacific Island countries.

Prior to this Olive was the Director of Whales Alive - a non-profit conservation and education organisation with offices in Australia, Hawaii and Tonga.

From 1993 she has been involved in photo ID, acoustic and behavioural research on humpback whales in Australia, Hawaii and the South Pacific Region, as well as killer whale acoustics and marine mammal distribution surveys in BC, Canada.

Olive coordinated international campaigns in support of the Southern Ocean whale Sanctuary in 1994 and South Pacific Whale Sanctuary in 2000/2001 at the International Whaling Commission meetings in Mexico, Australia, and UK.

Since 1999 Olive has developed and provided specialised training and technical advice on marine mammal conservation and management to Governments and industry of the South Pacific. This work has seen the development of Pacific regional whale watching guidelines and National whale sanctuaries in Tonga, Niue, Samoa and Vanuatu.

Olive is an active member of the South Pacific Whale Research Consortium and conducted the first dedicated marine mammal surveys in Niue in 2008 with local stakeholders, which documented an unprecedented number of sightings of IUCN Endangered Oceania Humpback whales.

Updated: 25 July 2010