People

Rashid Sumaila is a Professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Interdisciplinary Ocean and Fisheries Economics at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, and the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia. His research focuses on bioeconomics, marine ecosystem valuation and the analysis of global issues such as fisheries subsidies, marine protected areas, illegal fishing, climate change, marine plastic pollution, and oil spills.

Pollution, fish contamination and consumption safety; Climate change impacts and vulnerability in fisheries sector; Deep-sea mining

• Lubna is focused on two major research streams: the Earth Commission’s Ocean Sub-stream and the economic evaluation of Deep-Sea Mining (DSM).
• She is defining a collapse threshold (≤10% of historical catch/biomass) and introducing “fish dependency” as a justice metric to protect vulnerable populations.
• She is serving as a Guest Lecturer at UCSI University (Malaysia) and is supervising PhD graduate Ashraf M. M. Zohud.

Ongoing Research Projects

• The net cost of deep seabed mining.
• Overexploitation and climate-induced vulnerability of fisheries in the Coral Triangle of Asian countries: linking fisheries sustainability to food security.

• Azizul is the primary architect behind updating the FERU fisheries subsidies database.
• Completing detailed verification and updates for 38 countries and is restructuring data for 15 lower-HDI countries.
• He is producing data critical for accurate global reporting on harmful subsidies.

Research Interest(s): Fisheries subsidies, fisheries economics and ocean sustainability, climate vulnerability, socio-economic vulnerability analysis of fisheries, climate change adaptation and mitigation, low carbon & disaster-resilient cities, scenario development and analysis.

Climate change issues and their impacts on the ocean and resource sustainability.

• Ilyass is balancing a full-time federal government role with academic teaching and circular-economy research.
• Teaching Environmental Economics at the University of Quebec in Montreal.
• Developing future teaching collaborations after visiting Nagoya University in Japan to discuss work in Game Theory.

Research interests: application of dynamic game theory to environmental and natural resource management and economics, pollution control, international environmental agreements, fisheries sustainability, public economics.

Dr. Innes-Gold is working with Dr. Rashid Sumaila (IOF, FERU) and Dr. Cyrille Kenne (Mathematics).

She is conduct interdisciplinary research between IOF and the Department of Mathematics, using mathematical modelling, economics, and biology to inform fisheries management. She previously completed her undergraduate degree in Biology at Vassar College, her master’s degree in Ecology at the University of Rhode Island, and her PhD in Marine Biology at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

Research interest(s): mathematical modelling, social-ecological systems, marine ecology, fisheries management, and climate change impacts.

Marine plastic pollution, fisheries & economics

• Ibrahim is contributing to multiple international projects on socio-ecological resilience in coastal systems, with a focus on mangroves and the blue economy.
• Facilitating an additional CAD $500,000 BCDI 2030 fund under the CoastMan Project to train students from eight IGAD member countries.
• He holds an honorary Associate Scholar position with the University of Meknés (Morocco).

Research Questions:

• How can we quantify the diverse impacts of plastic pollution on ecosystems, human health, and local economies?
• What challenges exist in quantifying the social costs of plastic pollution?
• How can we accurately estimate the dollar value of avoided emissions?

Social-ecological system, Species distribution models, Aquaculture & fisheries

Research Questions:

• What factors determine the vulnerability and resilience of marine social-ecological systems?
• How can the level of marine ecological security and sustainability be modeled under different development pathways and climate scenarios?
• What incentives can promote the development of marine social-ecological systems in a more sustainable direction?

Oriana Smy is a social scientist with a Master of Arts Degree in Socio-cultural Anthropology from the University of British Columbia, where she specialized in marine plastic pollution and “ghost gear” in Baja California Sur, Mexico. She is skilled in qualitative and quantitative methods, community-based research, project management, environmental policy, and ethnographic mapping. Oriana is leading the development of a marine monitoring metadata tool, “MONITR: Marine Observation Network Inventory TRacker,” with the Coastal Habitats Learning and Knowledge Hub, a collaborative project with the Hakai Institute and WWF-Canada. She is also working with Rashid Sumaila and Margot Hessing-Lewis, facilitating a Coastwide Pyropia group via the International Bioeconomy Macroalgae Center.

Research interests: small-scale fisheries, MPAs, Indigenous Rights, ocean governance, marine plastic pollution, and human dimensions of climate change.

Socio-economics of human-environment interactions, small-scale fisheries and livelihoods

• Louise is working at the intersection of food security, climate change, and commercial seafood sectors.
• Estimating global seafood consumption by the tourism sector, focusing on the Iberostar group, to identify sustainable sourcing pathways.
• Conducting catch reconstructions for Malaysia and assessing climate-change impacts on fisheries in Madagascar, Comoros, and Cabo Verde.

Research Questions:

• How can marine ecosystems support current and future social-economic and biodiversity benefits?
• What are the trade-offs arising from climate and societal change at global and local scales?
• How can we engage coastal communities in identifying pathways towards sustainable livelihoods?

Gender, small-scale fisheries and livelihoods, Climate change adaptations, IUU Fishing and Fisheries economics.

• Ayodele is advancing research at the intersection of social equity and marine governance, with a focus on gender dynamics and illegal fishing.
• In 2025, led a major study published in Discover Sustainability reviewing global links between climate-change threats, IUU fishing, and gender impacts in coastal communities.

Research Questions:

• What are the vulnerabilities to climate change for different genders in small-scale fishing communities?
• Are there clear manifestations and evidence-based effects of these climate change stressors on gendered livelihood sustainability?
• How would addressing climate change stressors enhance resilience and reduce vulnerabilities to illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing for different genders in small-scale fishing communities?

Exploring the potential of blue carbon from different perspectives

Research Questions:

• Why is blue carbon important? What are the co-benefits of different blue carbon ecosystems?
• How much is blue carbon worth today and in the future?
• How can we implement blue carbon projects equitably?
• How can we finance blue carbon?

Fisheries Subsidies and Implications on marginalized communities

• Ema is continuing specialized work on gendered impacts of fisheries subsidies, supported by PEW funding.
• She was recognized as a 2025 Liu Scholar for her interdisciplinary approach.

Research Questions:

• What are the current evidence of social implications of fisheries subsidies?
• Examining how fisheries subsidies affect women’s participation in marine fishing industry?
• Investigating the role of fisheries subsidies in changing the dynamics of women’s participation in India’s marine fishing industry?

Ocean sustainability, marine social-ecological system resilience, and global fisheries management

• Han is a PhD candidate in Ocean Technology and Engineering at the Ocean College, Zhejiang University (China), visiting FERU & the IOF until August 2027.
• Investigating the resilience of global fisheries systems using computational and data-driven approaches.
• Focusing on the complex interactions among ecological, socioeconomic, governance, and technological dimensions of human-ocean systems.

Research Questions:

• How do ecological conditions, economic activities, governance, and technological capacity interact to shape the ability of fisheries systems to withstand, adapt to, and recover from disturbances?
• How can computational and data-driven approaches be used to model system dynamics, vulnerability, and responses to environmental and socioeconomic stressors?
• What cross-country patterns of vulnerability, resilience, and recovery exist to provide quantitative evidence for sustainable global fisheries management?

Economics of ocean and marine resource use; High-impact ocean sectors; Capital control and public value capture

• Helena is a PhD student at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, co-supervised by Dr. Rashid Sumaila and Dr. Andrés Cisneros-Montemayor.
• She holds an MRM in Resource and Environmental Management, a BEnv, and a Certificate in Sustainable Community Development from Simon Fraser University.
• Her research combines qualitative political-economic analysis with quantitative methods to examine how high-impact sectors, such as offshore oil and gas and deep-sea mining, attract investment and justification despite limiting equitable outcomes.

Research interests: Blue economy equity, offshore extractive industries, deep-sea mining, public value capture, capital control, marine resource economics, political economy.

AI and machine learning applications in fisheries science, High seas tuna stock assessment, Ocean governance

• Wila is a PhD student working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, fisheries science, and international ocean governance.
• Assessing novel AI and large language model (LLM) approaches to biomass estimation and stock modeling, with an initial focus on the Indian Ocean tuna fishery.
• Translating technical computational developments into international ocean policy and examining their implications for Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs).

Research Questions:

• How do AI- and LLM-based approaches to biomass estimation and stock modeling perform against traditional in situ data collection for high seas tuna fisheries?
• As AI modeling tools mature, to what extent can they reliably supplement or replace in situ data without compromising the accuracy of stock assessments?
• What changes to management policy and decision-making processes would be needed to responsibly incorporate AI-based modeling into tuna management to support sustainable food systems?

Amazonian fisheries, Fish swim bladder trade, Value chains, Fisheries management and governance

• Gabriela is a PhD candidate in Aquatic Ecology and Fisheries at the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), Brazil, currently visiting FERU and collaborating with Professor Rashid Sumaila.
• Her doctoral research investigates the fish swim bladder trade in the Brazilian Amazon through an interdisciplinary perspective combining history, local ecological knowledge, microbiological analyses, economics, and fisheries regulations.
• Her work aims to improve understanding of the swim bladder value chain to contribute to more effective management strategies and public policies in Brazil.

Research interests: Amazonian fisheries, fisheries economics, fish trade and value chains, fish swim bladder trade, fisheries management and governance, public policy, local and traditional knowledge.

Small-scale fisheries, Food security and food sovereignty, African Blue Revolution, Fisheries governance and sustainability

• Barry’s research examines competing pathways to food security and sustainability in small-scale fisheries, with particular attention to the African Blue Revolution and food sovereignty.
• Investigating how different approaches to fisheries development shape the livelihoods and food security of small-scale fishing communities.
• Refining a sustainability assessment framework, guided by the Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture systems (SAFA), to examine aquatic food systems.

Research Questions:

• How are African Blue Revolution and food sovereignty approaches understood and experienced by organizations and small-scale fishers?
• How do these approaches shape access to resources, livelihood opportunities, and governance processes within fisheries and aquatic food systems?
• How do activities associated with these approaches influence broader food security and sustainability outcomes?