Site producer Ed Ellsworth shares what we can learn from dolphins. He is experienced with captive and wild dolphins. and with whales in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. He was a Dolphin Researcher with Dr. John C. Lilly and the Human/Dolphin Foundation, in California. He was a Humpback Whale Naturalist with EarthTrust, narrating whale watching trips in Maui. He has led dolphin trips and workshops in the Bahamas for the Institute of Noetic Sciences.
Ed founded The Dolphin Network, and published Dolphin Net, an educational newsletter, publicizing the plight of captive dolphins and campaigns about dolphins dying in tuna nets. He also led dolphin trips and workshops in the Florida Keys, Bahamas and Hawaii.
Ed has given public talks about evolution, communication, brain anatomy, physiology and mythology talks with stories from The Dolphin Trail at the Oakland Museum, 3220 Gallery, the San Francisco Mensa Society, San Francisco Tesla Society, Sunrise Center, Esalen, Harbin Hot Springs Watsu Center, in California; Breitenbush Hot Springs, Oregon, and several cities in Florida on the circuit from Sarasota to Palm Beach to Key West. He led humpback whale trips, and gave public presentations in Hawaii with EarthTrust.
I have worked primarily as an Independent Consultant, mostly working with nonprofit organizations and corporate events. I do a lot of creative and technical work, but I am often called in for business consulting to help manage a company when things change quickly. I have had an ongoing attraction to the ocean and the environment. One of the blessings of my life here, is that I get to look out on the San Francisco Bay every day.
I have recently moved back to Maui, because it was one of the happiest places that I have lived. I love the ocean, the whales and the dolphins and Maui epitomizes those things to me!
Recent organizations I have helped:
Sunrise Center is an educational nonprofit organization in Corte Madera and Tiburon, California; and Maui, Hawaii. – I have managed their websites and marketing of their Maui Farm Retreat. I helped this organization with problems with their bookkeeper who started a lawsuit against them and would not give information and passwords. I have also worked a lot with the lawyers and property managers with a lot of the land disputes in Tiburon. I was part of Save Our Bay Save Our Ocean, a project of Sunrise Center partnered with Shark Stewards. This was a a coalition working to preserve the eel grass and herring fisheries areas in the San Francisco Bay. I am one of the leaders of their San Francisco Bay Harbor Porpoise boat trips. I used to be on the Board of Directors of Sunrise Center, which is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.
I worked with International Medcom, a company that makes geiger counters (radiation detectors) in Sebastopol. When the Fukushima disaster happened, I was working with GreenAction Japan to create a petition server to let the international community tell the Japanese government know how they felt about this environmental disaster. International Medcom’s Chief Operating Officer had an emotional break-down, due to all the stress of the situation. I was hired to come in and reset the company. I moved it to a new location, set up entirely new systems and was able to ship three million dollars worth of geiger counters to Japan. This helped to establish SafeCast, a private radiation detection system available to the public. I had previously worked with Dan Sythe, the President of the company, and Henry Dakin, of Washington Research Institute, on the Chernobyl disaster. We put a radiation detection network around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Environmental and nonprofit work:
The Dolphin Network operated as a project of Washington Research Institute. I published a newsletter on dolphin captivity issues and the dolphin tuna net problems. I led dolphin trips in the Bahamas for theInstitute of Noetic Sciences to educate people that dolphins should be allowed to live freely in the wild. I have been an invited speaker for the Mensa Society, the Oakland Museum, Conscious Life Expo and many other venues.
I worked with EarthTrust on Maui as a humpback whale naturalist. I went out on boats and gave a talk about humpback whale behaviors, commenting on whale experience we were watching. I also worked in the hotels and schools doing educational presentations. I received my humpback whale certification through the course that the Pacific Whale Foundation offered through Maui Community College.
One of the first nonprofit organizations I was part of was the Human/Dolphin Foundation, with Dr. John Lilly. I helped create the permit release process with National Marine Fisheries and the Marine Mammal Commission to safely release dolphins from captivity. Our group was the first to model successful release of dolphins from captivity. I was featured for this work in For The Love of Dolphins, on the Discovery Channel.
I am on the board of Chaksampa, a Tibetan dance and opera company.
Clients have included:
NASA, National Geographic Society, International Forum on Globalization, United Nations Association, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Presidio Alliance, Resource Renewal Institute, 3220, Washington Research Institute, H. S. Dakin Company, Spirit At Work, WhaleSong, International MedCom, Oceanic Society, Earthviews Productions, Animal Fund, Odysee TV, Peter Wallerstein Photography, Sunrise Center, Concentric Media, Magnetic Image, Digit, Royal Weddings, California Video, Global Peace Foundation, Fiske Video, Smart Life Forums, Voice of the Environment, Kahua Hawaiian Institute, Margot Anand Productions, Sound Photosynthesis, Video Tracs, PlanetWorks, EarthDance, Bioneers, PC Staffing (Marin Country Day School), and others.
Education
1980 – 84 San Francisco State University
(Masters Program, Research Psychology)
1972 – 79 California State University, Long Beach
(BA Psychology, double major in Folklore/Mythology)
1974 – 76 Cypress College
(Associate Science, Psychiatric Technician Certification)