People

As part of the Urban Oceans project, Natasha's PhD research focuses on the impacts of urbanization on phytoplankton dynamics in the Salish Sea. The aim is to understand how freshwater and material flows from the urban environment impact primary producers and their fatty acid profiles, with implications on essential nutrients available to higher trophic levels including culturally and economically important fish. Read More

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Energy requirements of the Pacific Coast Feeding Group grey whales in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia waters

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Outcomes of Indigenous fishing methods for fish health and fisheries sustainability in a changing world

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Centre for Indigenous Fisheries

After moving to Canada in June 2017, I started volunteering for Dr.Lance Barrett-Lennard at Marine Mammal Research Institute (Ocean Wise). After contacting Professor Villy Christensen, we all together developed a PhD research project aiming at assessing the historical levels of key prey salmon species from California to Alaska in order to estimate the carrying capacity of the area for killer whale populations along with potential competitive effects of other marine top predators.... Read More

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Connecting preys and specialized predator population dynamics: The case of Southern Resident Killer whales

I am a Peruvian researcher that has been studying the ecological and human dimensions of the Humboldt Current, with emphasis on fisheries economics and governance. Before joining the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries at the University of British Columbia as a graduate student, I worked as associate researcher at Centre for Environmental Sustainability of the Cayetano Heredia University in Peru (2010-2015), and at Inteligencia Financiera SAC (2014-2015); as consultant for OCEANA-Peru (2016), the GEF-UNDP Project: “Towards the ecosystem based management of... Read More

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Can integrated ecological-economic models help operationalize ecosystem-based fisheries management?

Aanii, Alexander Duncan ndizhnikaaz, Niigaanweywidan nindigoo ojibwemong, Waabizheshii ndoodem, Neyaashiinigmiing ndoonjbaa. Alexander Duncan (Niigaanweywidan - spirit name), a member of the Marten clan, is from the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation and the larger Saugeen Ojibway Nation, Ontario. Coming from a fishing nation where water and fish remain a vital component of culture and life, Alexander has committed his academic career to meaningfully contribute and support Indigenous fisheries across Turtle Island, especially given... Read More

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Sea lamprey research and management – Indigenous input and inclusion (3I project)

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I am a PhD student at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, Canada. My interest in coastal ecology and archaeology started when I lived at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre while working at the local community school. My background is in zooarchaeology, invertebrate archaeology, historical ecology, community engagement, and science communication. Read More

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From Ecosystem Abundance to the City of Vancouver: A Story of Stewardship and Colonization on Canada’s West Coast

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Global distribution and biomass of the mesopelagic Mesozooplankton and Micronekton community

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I am a PhD student at the Institute of Ocean and Fisheries of University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC. I come from India, a nation with over 7500 Km coastline that inhabits around 170 million people threatened with an increasing risk to shifting climate, sea-level rise, and natural disasters. Of these, approximately 4 million constitute of marine fisher population, dependent on ocean resources while 60% of them are subsistence fishers. I was born in a landlocked state and spent most of my schooldays along the eastern Himalayan range... Read More

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My research work broadly focuses on understanding the economics of fishing industry in India. I use trawl fisheries as case study: a sector reported most profitable by the nation’s government. I will be investigating the economic impact based on empirical analysis of what is perceived as profitable and what are the other unaccounted hidden cost. The second part of my thesis aims at identifying who bears the financial burden. The outcome of my study envisages to have a better understanding of government resource use and distribution for improving fisheries management effectiveness.

My research focuses on Arctic marine mammal space-use, predator-prey dynamics, and fitness under changing seascapes. I am developing models to test the landscape of fear hypothesis, which predicts that predator (polar bear) space-use will indirectly influence prey (ringed seal) space-use, where prey avoid predator distribution on the seascape. I will model the space-use of polar bear and ringed seal, and how the predator-prey relationship is affected by shifts in sea ice regime, and also investigate the temporal effects of a poor-ice-year on the fitness... Read More

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Effects of trophic interactions and climate change on the space use of an Arctic marine mesopredator

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Kathleen is analyzing datasets from pinniped telemetry studies to investigate factors such as environmental cues, anatomical mechanisms, and innate versus learned abilities that pinnipeds use to navigate during long-distance migrations. She hopes to contribute new knowledge to a relatively unexplored field and understand how these findings impact the level of behavioral adaptability pinnipeds have when facing environmental changes.

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Exploring pinniped navigation methods for long-distance migrations

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Rowenna's PhD is on developing methods to quantitatively include Indigenous Knowledge (IK) into animal movement and habitat models. To address this she is focusing on ringed seals, spotted seals and bearded seals and their behaviour and habitat use in the Beaufort, Chukchi and Bering Seas. Rowenna will be conducting IK interviews in Arctic communities in Alaska to document the vast IK that exists in this region. She will then use a Bayesian statistical framework to equally include the IK and satellite movement data for these species to identify behaviour, such... Read More

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Integration of Indigenous knowledge and western science using a Bayesian approach for fully informed models.

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Vania is a marine biologist interested in stock assessment, harvest control rules, and mixed fisheries. Currently, I am working on designing multi-species harvest control rules under non-stationary natural mortality of harvested species in mixed-stock fisheries. Read More

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Stock assessment, harvest control, fish stocks

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Josh is a new IOF MSc student interested in the ecology, foraging behaviour and spatial ecology of marine mammals. In particular killer whales. Josh grew up on Vancouver Island, British Columbia Canada where he has been studying and working with transient (Bigg's) killer whales for over a decade. Josh is fascinated by the cultural and behavioural dynamics between and within populations and how these behaviours are utilized for hunting different... Read More

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Tess grew up in Vancouver, BC where she became fascinated by marine life, especially marine mammals. Tess attended UBC to complete her undergraduate degree and specialized in biology where she became passionate about marine ecology and conservation science. She volunteered and worked for various IOF research units such as the Sea Around Us and the Marine Mammal Research Unit during her undergraduate degree and looks forward to completing her Master's... Read More

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I am an M.Sc. student interested in the impacts of anthropogenic change on coastal marine ecosystems. My work at IOF uses environmental DNA (eDNA) and ancient DNA (aDNA) methodologies to examine harmful algal bloom dynamics along the Pacific Northwest coast. For my thesis, I will be using DNA extracted from nearshore marine sediment core samples to reconstruct past HAB events at a clam garden site in the traditional territory of the Gitga’at Nation... Read More

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Humpback whale prey consumption in British Columbia and the effects of a growing population on the food web in the Strait of Georgia

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Being born and raised in a small town on Canada’s east coast within Mi’kma’ki, I have always been influenced by the ocean and its inhabitants. Through my undergraduate degree at UBC, I was able to combine an education in anthropology and the relationship between people, culture, and the environment, with natural resource conservation. The interdisciplinary nature of my degree allowed me to learn from a number of approaches to current issues in... Read More

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Greig is an environmental scientist and ecosystem modeler. Greig has skillsets in ecosystem science, data science, geographic information systems, and computer programming. At UBC he was a teaching assistant for the Master of Data Science program ‘Supervised Machine Learning’ and ‘Data Visualization’ courses. Read More

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ecosystems, models, fisheries, Salish Sea, end-to-end, Ecopath, NEMO

My interest in fisheries science began in my undergraduate degree where my thesis research focused on how environmental change and management have influenced the social structure and dynamics of the Lobster fishing industry in Maine. Through this research, I became fascinated by how fishing industries support coastal communities and I was eager to learn more about how fisheries are monitored and managed. I crossed North America to work in some... Read More

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I grew up in a small town in Southern Ontario called Fort Erie and was always intrigued by the dominating agricultural landscape and it's impact on Lake Erie fish. I had the opportunity to complete my Bachelor's of Science at the University of Guelph majoring in Wildlife Biology and Conservation and minoring in Geographical Information Systems and Environmental Analysis. I completed my undergraduate thesis using GIS to analyze agricultural landscapes... Read More

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I am an MSc student at the IOF under the supervision of Dr. Daniel Pauly. My current project focuses on catch reconstruction and ecosystem modelling in the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon (Eastern Canada). I am interested in the impacts of fisheries on the different trophic levels and structures, and how to implement sustainable fisheries. Read More

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I am an oceanographer with a special interest in jellyfish ecology. I am also passionate about Indigenous representation in science and related outreach.

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I'm studying the glaucous-winged gulls to determine if human activities are influencing their behaviour and their health status. I'm using GPS and acceleration data to monitor them. My goal is to gain a deeper understanding of these birds and to ensure we coexist harmoniously on this planet.

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Marine Resource Management; Marine Policy; Marine Protected Areas; Ocean-based Climate Solutions; Regenerative Ocean Farming; Small-scale Fisheries; Food Security; Community-based Management; Marine Tenure

Mica’s earliest and strongest passion in life is marine biology. Since she was young, she has been fascinated by the biosphere and has always felt particularly drawn to studying our oceans. She obtained her junior open water diving certification in the Philippines when she was 12 years old, and, as a result of her parents’ unique employment opportunities in the Canadian Foreign Service, she grew up diving the world’s oceans, which fostered her profound... Read More

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Kristen's (she/her) PhD research topic encompasses multi-stressor impacts on the Canadian Beaufort Sea marine ecosystem at various biological scales. Specifically, she will develop and apply food web models and associated indices using the platform Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) to understand system dynamics. The food web models will investigate possible changes in the Beaufort Sea ecosystem structure and function under changing environmental and human... Read More

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Her research aims at understanding the functioning of ecosystems and their response to anthropogenic pressures in a changing world. The use of marine ecosystem models (Ecopath with Ecosim, OSMOSE) allows to study the marine environments from the individual to ecosystem levels and to forecast the future of biodiversity under fishing and climate change scenarios. Read More

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ecological modelling; impact assessment; biodiversity; fisheries; climate change; marine ecosystem; marine governance; Ecopath with Ecosim and Ecospace; OSMOSE

ʔéx kʷ n̓ & pusu’l (hello), my name is Kasey Stirling and I am Nlaka’pamux, Mi’kmaq, and Acadienne. I am a status member of the Lower Nicola Indian Band in Merritt, BC. I am from Williams Lake, the traditional territory of the T’exelcemc Nation (Williams Lake First Nation, Secwepemc Peoples). Throughout my life, I have walked between both worlds: Western and academic science, and Indigenous traditional knowledge. Balancing these pedagogies and developing... Read More

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Rhea's Ph.D. explores cardiovascular adaptations in diving mammals. She looks at this from two perspectives, anatomy and physiology. Anatomically, the aorta of marine mammals is intriguing as it has been reported to be enlarged in some species, but not others, and it is suspected to contribute to the ability to breathhold dive for long durations. Physiologically, marine mammals are known for their extreme cardiovascular adjustments to diving... Read More

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