David Cairns

David has spent most of his life on, over, or surrounded by water. Born and raised on Prince Edward Island on Canada's east coast, he pursued graduate and postdoctoral studies on seabirds on the remote fringes of eastern and Arctic Canada. He then took up a career in fisheries science which led him back to his natal island, where he is a research scientist with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and an adjunct professor at several universities. As a marine biologist, David considers himself singularly lucky to be paid to snorkel through salmon pools, steer Zodiacs through bergy bits, look up at whales, measure writhing eels, scramble up a rocky ledge that Jacques Cartier's men scrambled up, sit still while a puffin unties his bootlaces, sleep among the ghosts of great auks, and discover things about the natural world that have never been known before. He likes to share his stories and passions with others, which is why he applied to join the Lindblad Expedition team.