Overview
I am a PhD candidate in the Marine Science and Conservation program. My research interests broadly center around conservation biology and conservation policy, primarily through the lens of protected species bycatch. I am particularly interested in conducting bycatch assessments in international commercial fisheries, especially those managed by regional fisheries management organizations, and modeling bycatch rates in data-poor scenarios. I am equally as interested in the policy and management angle to these human-wildlife conflicts, and enjoy exploring efficacy of regulations and working with managers to strengthen policy and management surrounding protected species.
My strong interests in bycatch, policy, and management are influenced from my prior work experience, including as a former NOAA Knauss Marine Policy Fellow at the U.S. Department of State, an MMPA analyst as a contractor at the National Marine Fisheries Service Office of Protected Resources, and as a science communicator at Oceana. I hold a Master of Coastal Environmental Management from Duke University and a Bachelor of Science from the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Recent Publications
A call to rename Ziphius cavirostris the goose-beaked whale: promoting inclusivity and diversity in marine mammalogy by re-examining common names
Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · July 1, 2024 Full text Open Access CiteBycatch in drift gillnet fisheries: A sink for Indian Ocean cetaceans
Journal Article Conservation Letters · March 1, 2024 In 1992, the UN banned the use of large-scale pelagic driftnets on the high seas (UNGA Resolution 46/215). Three decades later, however, drift gillnets remain one of the primary fishing gears in the Indian Ocean, accounting for approximately 30% of tuna ca ... Full text CiteGEOAI FOR MARINE ECOSYSTEM MONITORING: A COMPLETE WORKFLOW TO GENERATE MAPS FROM AI MODEL PREDICTIONS
Conference International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences - ISPRS Archives · June 22, 2023 Mapping and monitoring marine ecosystems imply several challenges for data collection and processing: water depth, restricted access to locations, instrumentation costs or weather constraints for sampling, among others. Nowadays, Artificial Intelligence (A ... Full text CiteRecent Grants
A novel methodology to assess small cetacean bycatch and characterize the tuna drift gillnet fleet in the Arabian Sea: A Pakistan Case Study
ResearchGraduate Student · Awarded by World Wildlife Fund · 2022 - 2025Reducing marine mammal bycatch in Arabian Sea gillnetfisheries: A Pakistani case study
ResearchPI-Fellow · Awarded by National Geographic Society · 2022 - 2025View All Grants