Larry Hobbs

Larry has been involved in marine mammal research and natural history education for over 45 years.  His undergraduate training is in zoology, with graduate work in marine biology.  He also holds a master’s degree in psychology and is a certified counselor in the State of Washington.  In addition to his academic training, Larry has spent many years at sea, including two years as mate or master aboard open-ocean sailing ships.  Larry is a professional photographer and his photographs have appeared in Europe, Asia, Australia and Mexico as well as the United States.

Larry began his research work studying schooling behavior and communication patterns in wild spinner dolphin schools in Hawaii.  He later became interested in marine mammal population and behavior studies, which let to work with Steller sea lions, manatees, polar bears, and gray and bowhead whales.  Larry was the director of an interdepartmental office in Washington D. C. concerned with studying the populations of marine mammals under the departments’ jurisdiction.  He subsequently returned to the West Coast to pursue his research interests at the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle. 

Larry also spent 20 years as an adjunct faculty member at Antioch University teaching field courses in general science, geology and marine biology.  Larry is very interested in observing and studying all aspects of the natural world and has written several journal articles on truly systemic human sustainability.  He is a faculty member of the Institute for Creative Development which focuses on creative, systemic solutions to the difficult issues that face us today and has founded a Vision Quest program for youth through the U. S. 4-H programs and trains youth leaders worldwide.