Biography

My Masters work, completed at the Fisheries Centre, focused on analyzing unregulated and illegal fishing in a remote area of Indonesia known as Raja Ampat. This area boasts the world's highest coral reef biodiversity, and marine resources provide food and economic security to the region. The results of my thesis were shared with stakeholders in Raja Ampat, and will hopefully be incorporated into their future fisheries management plans.

In January 2008 I began my PhD study. Like my Masters, I am studying under the supervision of Dr. Rashid Sumaila in the Fisheries Economics Research Unit.  My work will focus on the economics of tuna fisheries in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean. Tuna fisheries in this area are fished by several countries, contribute to food and economic security in the region, and are consumed by nations all over the world. As highly migratory fish stocks, tuna are inherently difficult to manage jointly. However, it is generally shown that joint management of shared stocks can yield substantial economic benefits. As such, the objectives of this research are 1. To estimate the possible gains to the system through cooperative management of tuna fisheries; 2. To evaluate the effect of certain policy decisions (for example closed areas or subsidy elimination) on the system; and 3. To assist in the identification of necessary components of a self-sustaining collaborative agreement. If you are interested in reading about the application of game theory to shared stocks, specifically tuna fisheries in the Pacific, see this document.

This work is generously funded by World Wildlife Fund. In 2008 further funding came from the Province of British Columbia through the Pacific Century Award, and the University of British Columbia, through a University Graduate Fellowship. In 2009 and onwards, funding is through a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council  (SSHRC) CGS Scholarship.

In 2008 and part of 2009, I did work with the Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) Tools Network (www.ebmtools.org). Through a working group we were trying to increase the integration of social science-based software tools in EBM projects around the world. More on this working group can be found at http://www.ebmtools.org/about_us/social_science.html.

In October, 2008, I took over as the editor of 2 Fisheries Centre publications: FishBytes and the Sea Around Us project newsletter. Please contact me if you'd like to receive electronic copies of these newsletters. Also, email submissions can be sent my way if you have something you'd like to see published in our newsletters.

PRESENTATIONS AND LECTURES 

• October 29, 2010 Economics of tuna fisheries in the western and central Pacific Ocean. Graduate Seminar Series, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
• May19, 2010 Cost of juvenile fishing: bycatch in the western and central Pacific Ocean purse seine fishery. 61st Tuna Conference, Lake Arrowhead, CA, USA.
• February 3, 2010 Bioeconomics and dynamic optimization (with Ling Huang). Fisheries Economics 506, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
• October 21, 2009 How can social science tools assist in ecosystem-based management? Canadian Society of Ecological Economics, Vancouver, Canada.
• October 15, 2009 Privatization of the world’s fisheries. Environmental Sciences ESCI 204 (Ocean Topics in Marine Science), Western Washington University, Bellingham WA, USA.
• October 1, 2009 Economic tradeoffs in tuna fisheries in the western and central Pacific Ocean. Quantitative Seminar Series, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
• June 4, 2009 Game theoretic modeling of tuna fisheries in the western and central Pacific Ocean. FAME Game Theory and Fisheries Workshop. Esbjerg, Denmark.
• May 19, 2009 Economic tradeoffs in tuna fisheries in the western and central Pacific Ocean. North American Association of Fisheries Economists, Newport RI, USA.
• March 2009 Lagrangian optimization in game theoretic analysis. Fisheries 506C (Fisheries Economics), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
• September 2008 Economics of monitoring, control and surveillance. Earth and Ocean Sciences 478 (Introduction to Fisheries), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
• July 23, 2008 Skipjack, yellowfin and bigeye tuna management within a game theoretic framework. International Institute for Fisheries Economics and Trade, Nha Trang, Vietnam.
• March 10, 2008 Managing tuna in the Coral Triangle. Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies Celebrate Research Week, Vancouver, Canada.
• July 16, 2007 Towards ecosystem-based management in the Bird’s Head Seascape. Bali, Indonesia.
• March 25, 2007 Illegal Fishing in Raja Ampat, Indonesia: An Applied Principal-Agent Analysis. North American Association of Fisheries Economists, Merida, Mexico.

AWARDS

2010          GeoEye Tuna Conference Scholarship
2009-2012 SSHRC CGS Doctoral Scholarship
2008-2009 University Graduate Fellowship
2008-2009 Pacific Century Award
2007          Pacific Fisheries Biologist Travel Grant
2006-2007 SSHRC Masters Scholarship
2004          NSERC Summer Internship

See Megan's Student Profile