Biography

Heather did her BSc in marine biology at Dalhousie University. She worked with Dr. Ransom Myers as a research assistant and became exposed to the world of fisheries science. After finishing her honours thesis which looked at modeling spatial area closures to reduce bycatch in the pelagic longline fishery, she moved west to begin her MSc at the Fisheries Centre.

Heather completed her MSc at the UBC Fisheries Centre with Dr. Rashid Sumaila and Dr. Carl Walters in March 2006. Her project looked at the historical movement of fishing effort and attempted to predict this pattern using economic variables, catch rates and biomass trends. Using relative profitability derived from fishing cost and revenue, fishing effort distribution was modeled through time. Using the results of this project, management policies such as spatial area closures can be examined with the inclusion of how fishers will behave to changing regulations, market prices, biomass and catch trends.

Heather is now working as a research assistant with the Sea Around Us Project. Her contract is looking at modeling global spatial fishing effort from all fleets, gear types and countries to match with global catch data included in an Ecopath with Ecosim model.