Seaweek Royal Society Lecture

7:30 PM, 3 March 2015, National Aquarium of New Zealand, Marine Parade, Napier

Anton Van Helden

Marine Mammal and Museum consultant, Illustrator, cartoonist, and entertainer

For 24 years, Anton managed one of the worlds largest collections of Marine Mammals, exhibition planning and design, collections management, research (particularly on beaked whales), specimen acquisition, preparation and preparative processes, illustration, communication, lecturing, workshop development and implementation and specimen handling. He was involved in adding over 1000 specimens of marine mammals to New Zealand’s national marine mammal collection.

Anton was involved in the description of Perrin’s beaked whale (Mesoplodon perrini), the resurrection of the Spade-toothed whale (Mesoplodon traversii) and adding several species of cetacean to the New Zealand fauna. He was instrumental in the development of the Whales Tohora exhibition (currently touring North America) and the exhibit Wild Design at Te Papa.

Anton produced numerous illustrations for Te Papa for the exhibitions NatureSpace, Blood-Earth-Fire, The Colossal squid, Whales Tohora and other online and printed resources.