MY RESEARCH
For a complete list of publications from my research, please refer to my Google Scholar profile.
MITACS Elevate Postdoctoral Fellowship, Nature United / University of Victoria, 2023-present
Climate change is currently impacting marine fisheries and the communities who rely on them for food and livelihoods. While assessments of the vulnerability of fish populations or fishing communities to climate change exist, there are fewer tools and approaches for assessing the ‘climate readiness’ of fisheries management institutions that are faced with making decisions in an increasingly dynamic climate context. Here we develop an institutional assessment framework and survey tool for use by Fisheries and Oceans Canada to evaluate the degree to which the current management of individual fish stocks is adaptive and responsive to climate change. Our tool can help agency managers and decision-makers identify key areas to prioritize for improving fisheries adaptation processes and preparedness, at the individual stock level and more broadly for the institution at regional and national scales. While the tool was designed for use within Canada, this approach and framework is adaptable to other agencies and jurisdictions.
Invited Collaboration, Dalhousie University, 2023-2024
The United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) recognized Indigenous rights to self-determination. How these rights can be realized in territories governed by settler-states remains unclear. For fisheries, the need to understand processes that support Indigenous self-determination has gained urgency due to government commitments and investor interest in developing ocean and coastal resources, or Blue Economies, amid rapid climatic changes. Here, we explored Indigenous groups’ fishery development experiences following two approaches to reconciling Indigenous fishing rights in New Zealand, following the 1992 Treaty of Waitangi (Fisheries Claims) Settlement Act, and in Canada, following the Supreme Court of Canada’s 1999 ruling R. v. Marshall. We document how, in both cases, Indigenous groups’ self-determination remains constrained by actions from state regulatory and enforcement agencies, that govern market access, other resource users’ activities, and processes for collecting and sharing information about fish populations. To address these challenges, we call for legal reforms that require settler-state governments support Indigenous self-determination, to overcome the political risks politicians face when advocating for a non-majority group’s interests.
PhD Research, Dalhousie University, 2019-2023
In many contexts around the world, fisheries management remains a ‘wicked problem’, plagued by complexity in efforts to obtain credible information upon which to make decisions, establish legitimacy in governance processes, and achieve diverse objectives. Understanding how different actors in the fisheries governance process may work together to combine sources of information and bridge knowledge types is foundational to enhancing ‘evidence-based’ decisionmaking toward full-spectrum sustainability. With a focus on fisheries in Atlantic Canada, the goal of my thesis was to explore approaches to scientific inquiry that result in both a more holistic assessment of the fishery system and more transparency and inclusion in decision-making processes, setting the stage for ‘win-win’ scenarios for both human communities and the natural world in which they are embedded. A common thread throughout my research is the unrealized (potential) value of community knowledge in fisheries science and management. I describe how engaging with stakeholders and rightsholders need not ‘dilute’ the role of science in decision-making, but can enrich it, partly by forcing us to confront the multifaceted objectives we seek to achieve through fishing.
COMMUNITY-BASED OCEAN LITERACY: FOUR CASE STUDIES OF OCEAN OPTIMISM FROM MI’KMA’KI/ATLANTIC CANADA
Invited Collaboration - Canadian Ocean Literacy Coalition, 2020
This research involved analyzing data from the Canadian Ocean Literacy Coalition's regional survey on ocean literacy. We identified four case studies of community-based ocean literacy in Mi’kma’ki/Atlantic Canada to demonstrate how approaches to ocean literacy that are context-specific and responsive to community priorities can foster healthier human-ocean relationships. While there are barriers to bridging community learning with formal education, we discuss opportunities for collaborations and the importance of ocean optimism in guiding these urgently needed efforts to benefit future community-based, ocean-focused and solutions-orientated initiatives.
OUTCOMES OF LONG-TERM SATELLITE TRACKING OF LEATHERBACK SEA TURTLES
Contract - Department of Fisheries and Oceans, 2016
Attachment methods for satellite tags deployed on marine animals must optimize data collection and minimize potential adverse effects on the study subjects. The smooth, oily carapace of the leatherback turtle contrasts with the keratinized scutes of other sea turtles and has required the development of novel approaches to tag attachment. The study represented the first long-term assessment of satellite tag retention, recovery, and attachment site condition for leatherback sea turtles. We compared outcomes for female, male, and sub-adult turtles tagged using both harness and direct attachment methods in a foraging area off Nova Scotia, Canada.
ENTANGLEMENTS OF LEATHERBACK SEA TURTLES IN FIXED FISHING GEAR IN ATLANTIC CANADA
Contract - Canadian Sea Turtle Network, 2014
Incidental capture in commercial fishing gear is a threat to many populations of marine megafauna, including sea turtles. While research has largely focused on pelagic longline impacts on sea turtles, fixed‐gear fisheries are a significant, historically understudied source of injury and mortality. This study involved assessing the interaction of endangered leatherback sea turtles with fixed‐gear fisheries in high‐latitude seasonal foraging habitat where sub‐adult and adult turtles aggregate. Records of leatherback‐fishery interactions were compiled from databases of publicly‐reported sea turtle sightings in Atlantic Canada to identify the spatiotemporal distribution of these events; to identify corresponding fisheries and gear types; and to describe the mechanics and outcomes of entanglements in fixed gear.
EFFECTS OF THERMAL EFFLUENT ON THE DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTION OF BENTHIC INVERTEBRATES IN THE ST. LAWRENCE RIVER
MSc Research, McGill University, 2011-2013
Temperature is an important physical constraint on the distribution and abundance of aquatic organisms. Increasingly, natural thermal regimes of aquatic systems are modified by human activities, resulting in changes to the composition and structure of the local organismal community. Operating from 1983 to 2012, the Gentilly-2 Nuclear Power Plant (G2NPP) in Bécancour, QC, discharged coolant water into the St. Lawrence River at temperatures more than 10oC above ambient. My MSc research aimed to quantify how the diversity, composition, and abundance of the St. Lawrence benthic invertebrate community had been altered
by G2NPP thermal effluent.
WATER MASSES AND SOLAR ILLUMINATION INFLUENCE HIGH-RESOLUTION LEATHERBACK SEA TURTLE MOVEMENTS AT HIGH LATITUDES
BSc Honours Research, Dalhousie University, 2010-2011
Data loggers were deployed on three female leatherback sea turtles foraging off Halifax, Nova Scotia, and were recovered during subsequent nesting in South and Central America. My BSc Honours research involved using these telemetry data to identify high-resolution spatial and temporal patterns in leatherback movements, and associated environmental variables shaping leatherback habitat use in Atlantic Canadian foraging waters.
PhD Lab Collaboration, Dalhousie University, 2023-2024
Motivated by the leadership, scholarship and activism of Indigenous Peoples, there are growing calls to transform and decolonize Canadian institutions that govern fisheries research in Canada. As a predominantly non-Indigenous group that works at the intersection of fisheries and justice, we encounter questions daily about how to act as allies in these efforts and take up this urgent call in our own work. Our goal with this perspective is to synthesize and share some of what we have learned about encountering and combatting colonialism in the hope that it may offer something to other non-Indigenous and settler fisheries researchers who are grappling with colonization in their own work. This synthesis is based on both Indigenous scholarship and our own experiential learning. We look to actions fisheries researchers may take to advance Indigenous sovereignty in fisheries research. We offer this to our fellow non-Indigenous researchers who likely also struggle with similar questions, and hope that in doing so, we can help move towards decolonial fisheries Futures.
PhD Lab Collaboration, Dalhousie University, 2023-2024
Motivated by the leadership, scholarship and activism of Indigenous Peoples, there are growing calls to transform and decolonize Canadian institutions that govern fisheries research in Canada. As a predominantly non-Indigenous group that works at the intersection of fisheries and justice, we encounter questions daily about how to act as allies in these efforts and take up this urgent call in our own work. Our goal with this perspective was to synthesize and share some of what we have learned about encountering and combatting colonialism in the hope that it may offer something to other non-Indigenous and settler fisheries researchers who are grappling with colonization in their own work. This synthesis is based on both Indigenous scholarship and our own experiential learning. We offer this to our fellow non-Indigenous researchers who likely also struggle with similar questions, and hope that in doing so, we can help move towards decolonial fisheries Futures.