Ted Cheeseman

TED CHEESEMAN currently runs Cheeseman’s Ecology Safaris, a quality safari company started by his parents, and has worked in the company, in various capacities, over the past few decades. However, he is also focusing much of his energy on citizen-science based Happywhale, (happywhale.com) a fluke-matching program he founded, to try to better understand our whales through individual identification.

Ted was born in Mountain View, not very far from his current home, and grew up in the Santa Cruz Mountains. He’s been moving closer to the Monterey Bay ever since, in five mile increments. If he ever gets rich enough, he plans to move the next seven blocks for an ocean view!

Ted got his masters degree in tropical terrestrial ecology from Duke University, but through working in Antarctica he became more ocean focused. His father was a zoology professor with a passion for large terrestrial animals and marine mammals, with a love of animal behavior. Ted grew up hearing stories of elephant seals, their biology and behavior, among many other stories.

Ted went out on Monterey Bay a lot with his family when he was young, but always struggled with seasickness. However, he always liked being on the water more than he disliked being seasick. As an avid surfer, Ted manages to get out on the Bay on a regular basis, and leads annual whale watch trips for Cheeseman’s on Monterey Bay each summer. He also leads expeditions to Antarctica and the Arctic, and tours to the Caribbean to swim with humpback whales. 

Ted is currently pursuing a doctoral degree studying humpback whales.