Dirk Zeller

I am Professor of Marine Conservation and also lead the Sea Around Us – Indian Ocean (www.seaaroundus-io.org). This is a partnership-expansion of the global Sea Around Us research initiative on which I have been working for nearly 20 years, and which is co-located in the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada (www.seaaroundus.org). I direct and coordinate research activities of the Sea Around Us associated with the Indian and Pacific ocean regions, and co-direct global research and strategic funding decisions with Daniel Pauly (UBC), Maria (Deng) Palomares (UBC) and Jessica Meeuwig (UWA). I lead research on catch reconstructions and illegal and unreported fishing, fishing effort and first-order assessment of stocks, coral reef fisheries, ocean governance, fisheries policy and economics. I collaborate widely with colleagues around the world on Indian Ocean and global fisheries issues and meta-analyses, with FishBase and SeaLifeBase on biodiversity (the global biodiversity information systems for fish and non-fish marine life, www.fishbase.org, www.sealifebase.org), with the Fisheries Economics Research Unit (UBC, feru.oceans.ubc.ca) on issues in resource economics, with the Changing Ocean Research Unit (UBC, coru.oceans.ubc.ca) on issues of climate change and fisheries, and with legal scholars on issues related to international maritime boundary law and the UN Law of the Sea Convention.

I have a background in tropical marine biology and fisheries ecology from James Cook University, Australia, and have professional interests in marine and fisheries conservation and global fisheries sustainability, strategic and global policy developments and resource economics.