Doug Ross Memorial Fund

The Doug Ross Memorial Fund is in honor of a remarkable man.

Doug was a talented artist, friend, valuable member of our Marine Life Studies' family, and great advocate for all marine mammals and our ocean. He was known for his passion to rescue marine life. Unfortunately, he passed away in December 2016 at the age of 55. He was a gift to all of us and his presence made a difference. Doug left a very large footprint in all of our lives and a legacy that very few people can claim. We were blessed and honored to have Doug as a friend and team member.

One of many beautiful silk-screen print designed by Doug.

​Doug loved to captain our Whale Rescue Research Vessel.

Doug was so generous volunteering his time for TMMC, Long Marine Lab, and Marine Life Studies’ Whale Entanglement Team (WET)® and Research Scientist Program. Doug had a great sense of humor and was a joy to work with. He was not only an incredible, talented artist but also an engineer. Doug was a very smart man. He was working on new design for a telemetry buoy with less drag plus Doug redesigned new weak links for whale disentanglement. Here is a link to a presentation by Doug talking about his new designs:  http://www.pechakucha.org/cities/santa-cruz-ca/presentations/building-a-better-buoy 

Ginger Mosney (Doug's wife and partner for just shy of 30 years), said it best, "If I had a mission statement for Doug, it would be something like: Make stuff, rescue animals. And if you can't make stuff, support people that do make stuff, and if you can't rescue animals, support people who do rescue animals." 

Picture to the right: Doug approaching an entangled humpback whale to attach a telemetry buoy to the trailing gear of the whale. We nicknamed this humpback "Doug's Whale."

Ginger said, “In another life, Doug would have been a scientist. He loved working with biologists. It was an outlet for that side of him and he saw it was needed.”

Ginger and Doug met working in her uncle's framing shop in their native town of Toronto. "Doug and I had a really similar aesthetic. We liked all the same things, and we hated all the same things," remarked Ginger. After dating for 9 years, the two were married in Vegas on Halloween - Ginger dressed as a banana and Doug as a gorilla. They moved to Santa Cruz about 25 years ago.

Honor Doug's lifelong passion through the Doug Ross Memorial Fund. You can even set up a recurring donation in his honor. Monies raised for WET® in Doug’s honor will be used to fund our Whale Rescue Research Vessel and equipment needed for whale disentanglement responses.

DONATE TODAY

To donate over the phone, contact us. If you would rather make a
     donation by check or money order, please send to:
     Marine Life Studies, PO Box 163, Moss Landing, CA 95039