Faculty
Mai Yasue
Research Associate, Project Seahorse; Research Fellow/Faculty Member, Quest University Canada
BSc Double Geography & Biology (University of Victoria); MSc Zoology (University of Oxford); PhD Geography (University of Victoria)
Research Unit
- Project Seahorse
Research Interests
- Marine protected areas
- Conservation and development
- Behavioural ecology of shorebird
Biography
I am an interdisciplinary conservation scientist and have conducted research in several regions of the world. My main interest is how to achieve successful, socially and economically sustainable conservation strategies in developing countries.
My research focuses on using ecological and social data to better understand the effectiveness and establishment of community-based marine protected areas in the Philippines. In addition, at Project Seahorse, I am also examining how
a CITES ban on the trade of seahorses may have affected Traditional Chinese Medicine traders in Hong Kong. In the past I have worked on ecotourism in Baja California, the impacts of tourism development on birds in Thailand and the west coast of Vancouver Island, H5N1 avian influenza and tropical rainforest conservation (forest certification and climate change mitigation “avoided deforestation”).
As an educator at Quest University her goals are to encourage students to see linkages across disciplines and countries and to think about the impacts that we have on people in developing countries, other species and natural systems.
Selected Publications
Biological Conservation 2011
Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 2010
Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 2010
See All
Global Conservation
Ebeling, J. Yasué, M. 2009 Market-based conservation and global governance: Can forest certification compensate for poor environmental law enforcement in Ecuador and Bolivia? J Environmental Management, 90: 1145-1153.
Ebeling, J. Yasué, M. 2008. The potential and limitations of Avoided Deforestation to mitigate climate change and achieve co-benefits of biodiversity conservation and poverty relief. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 363, 1917–1924
Yasué, M., Feare, C., Fiedler, W. and Bennun, L. 2006. A vital role for ecologists and ornithologists in wild bird avian influenza outbreaks. BioScience, 56: 923-929
Feare, C., Yasué, M. 2006. The evidence for asymptomatic infection of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 in wild birds. Virology Journal 3: 96-100
Marine conservation
Hansen,G.J.A., Ban,N., Jones,M.L., Kaufman,L., Panes,H., Yasué, M. and Vincent,A.C.J. 2011. Hindsight in marine protected area designation and planning: a comparison of community-driven and systematic approaches in Danajon Bank, Philippines. Biological Conservation 144: 1866-1875
Theberge, M. Dearden,P., Yasué, M. 2010 Using underwater cameras to assess the effects of snorkeler and SCUBA diver presence on coral reef fish abundance, family richness, and species composition Ecological Monitoring and Assessment 163: 531-538
Yasué, M., Kaufman, L., Vincent, A.C. J. 2010 Assessing ecological changes in and around marine reserves using community perceptions and biological surveys. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. 20, 407–418.
Yasué, M., Nellas,A. Vincent, A.C.J. Seahorses helped drive creation of marine protected areas, so what did these protected areas do for the seahorse? In Press Environmental Conservation.
Shorebirds ecology and development
Yasué, M. Dearden, P. 2009. The importance of supratidal habitats for wintering shorebirds and the potential impacts of intensive shrimp aquaculture. Environmental Management. 43. 1108-1121
Yasué, M. Dearden,P. 2008. Methods to measure and mitigate the impacts of tourism development on tropical beach-breeding shorebirds: the Malaysian plover in Thailand. Tourism in Marine Environments, 5, pp. 287-299
Yasué, M. Dearden, P., Moore, A. 2008. An approach to assess the potential impacts of human disturbance on wintering tropical shorebirds. Oryx, 42:415-423
Yasué, M. Dearden, P. 2007. Are salt flats suitable alternative breeding habitats for Malaysian plovers Charadrius peronii threatened by beach habitat loss in Thailand. Bird Conservation International, 17 (2): 211-223.
Yasué, M. Dearden, P. 2007 Constraints on successive clutching behaviour of sedentary Malaysian plovers breeding in a tropical environment. Ardea, 96(1):59-72..
Yasué, M. Dearden, P. 2007. Sex-roles of Malaysian plovers Charadrius peronii during territory acquisition, incubation and brood care. Journal of Ethology, 26(1): 99-112.
Yasué, M. Dearden, P. 2006. Simultaneous biparental incubation of two nests by a pair of Malaysian plovers. Wader Study Group Bull. 109: 121 – 122.
Yasué, M. Dearden, P. 2006. The effects of heat stress, predation risk and parental investment on Malaysian plover nest return times after a human disturbance. Biological Conservation 132, 472-480.
Yasué, M. Dearden, P. 2006. The potential impacts of tourism development on the habitat availability and productivity of the Malaysian plovers (Charadrius peronii). Journal of Applied Ecology, 43: 978 – 989
Yasué, M. 2005. Environmental factors and scale influence a shorebird's response to human disturbance. Biological Conservation, 128: 47 - 54
Yasué, M. 2005. The effects of human presence, flock size and prey density on shorebird foraging rates. Journal of Ethology 23: 199-204.
Yasué,M. J.L. Quinn, W. Cresswell. 2003. Multiple effects of weather on the starvation and predation risk trade-off in choice of feeding location in redshanks. Funct Ecol 17:727-736.
