CREATING A FISH REFUGE
UNDERSTANDING THE STEPS NEEDED TO ESTABLISH A FISH REFUGE IN QUINTANA ROO, MEXICO
The Clawless Lobsters
Our team is comprised of students from Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California Santa Barbara. The group alias name, Clawless Lobsters, was derived based on one of Mexico's main fishery in the Caribbean region - the Caribbean Spiny Lobster (Panulirus argus).
Sarah Salem
Project Manager
Sarah Z. Salem graduated from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University (Philadelphia, USA) in 2010 with a Bachelor's of Architecture. Prior to graduating Sarah spent her thesis year researching the impact of architectural design on different types of ecologies. Eventually she narrowed her focus on coral reef ecologies, which planted the seed that led her to the Bren School. Sarah served as a project manager at M. Cohen and Sons, a design-build firm, before joining the the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management Program.
Sarah has a desire to work with marine ecologies both domestically and abroad. She is pursuing specialization in Economics and Politics of the Environment with an emphasis on Coastal Marine Resource Management, and a Strategic Environmental Communication and Media Focus. As an Egyptian-American she hopes to use the education and experience she receives at the Bren School to help the unique coastal ecologies in the Red Sea in Egypt.
Denise Garcia
Outreach Manager
Denise completed her Bachelor in Natural Resource Management from the University of Belize. Denise served as the Managed Access Coordinator for the Belize Fisheries Department, where she was tasked with developing and implementing new rights-based fisheries management approaches for Belize’s small-scale fisheries. From this role, she then served as the Director of a Rare Pride Campaign with the Fish Forever initiative in Belize, which championed managed access areas as an approach for sustainable small-scale fisheries in the country. Denise is particularly interested in effective fisheries management approaches for developing countries, and will pursue a specialization in Coastal Marine Resources Management as a LAFF and a Wilderness Conservation Society fellow. Her professional goal is serve in roles that support better decision making around Belize’s efforts to reform national fisheries management for increased benefit to ecosystems and livelihoods.
Camila Vargas
Financial Manager
Camila is originally from Santiago, Chile and holds a degree in Biology from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC), with a major in ecology and specialization in natural resources management. Her working experiences has mostly been related to academic research for the Marine Conservation Center – PUC, exploring social-ecological systems dynamics in small-scale fisheries in Chile.
At the Marine Conservation Center, Camila collaborated on a range of project, from research to review biodiversity offset’s in the scientific literature, to an initiative with a PNUD project aimed to develop a credit system for marine biodiversity offsets for the central coast of Chile. She has also been involved in several field works assessing fishers’ perceptions on adaptive capacity and evaluating fishers’ collaborative behavior through game theory experiments. Before starting the MESM program at Bren, Camila’s primary research focused on gender roles in small-scale fisheries along the coast of central Chile.
At the Bren School, Camila is pursuing a specialization in Coastal Marine Resources Management. She is part of the LAFF program and holds a scholarship with CONICYT (National Science and Technology Commission of Chile).
Fabio Castagnino Ugolotti
Data Manager
Fabio graduated with his Bachelor's degree from the University Antonio Ruiz de Montoya (Lima, Peru) in 2012, where he majored in Sustainable Tourism, and continued his studies into marine science at Universidad Científica del Sur. As part of his degree, Fabio interned in the Gulf of Nicoya, Costa Rica, on a project to implement one of the country’s few Responsible Marine Fishing Areas. He then collaborated on the launch of a national campaign called “El Tamaño Si Importa” ("Size Does Matter") to raise awareness for sustainable seafood consumption, earning the National Environmental Award, by the Ministry of Environment, in 2013. Following his work on the campaign, Fabio began working for Smithsonian’s Marine Biodiversity Monitoring and Assessment Program in Lima, where he researched reef fish assemblages and implications for fisheries management. He is now pursuing the degree of Master of Environmental Science and Management, and specializing in Coastal Marine Resources Management. He is also a Latin American Fisheries Fellow.
Roxanne Diaz
Editoral Manager
Roxanne graduated from the University of North Carolina Wilmington in 2014 with Honors in a Bachelor’s of Science in Marine Biology. During her final year there, she did an undergraduate research project focusing on how a certain pesticide, bifenthrin, affected the genetic makeup of larval silverside fish. After graduation, Roxanne became an educator at the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher, in addition to, an internship at the UNCW Aquaculture Facility. After a year and a half, Roxanne decided to attend the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management where she is pursuing a specialization in Coastal Marine Resource Management, with a Strategic Environmental Communication and Media Focus. Upon graduating she hopes to work within the nonprofit or NGO realm helping to protect our oceans and resources.
Advisors
Dr. Steve Gaines
Faculty Advisor
Steven Gaines is the Dean of the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management. His research focuses on marine ecology and conservation, sustainable fisheries, the design of marine reserves and the impact of climate change on ocean ecosystems. He has served as director of the UC Santa Barbara Marine Science Institute and as UCSB Acting Dean of Science and Acting Vice Chancellor for Research. Professor Gaines currently serves as a principal investigator for the Sustainable Fisheries Group, which seeks scalable solutions for the world’s fisheries through partnerships among UCSB researchers, industry leaders, NGOs and governments.
Julia Lawson
PhD Advisor
Julia's research interests are focused on sustainable fisheries management and international environmental policy. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Dalhousie University, where she conducted her senior thesis research at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences on coral reef reproduction and recruitment. Julia completed her Master's research at the University of British Columbia's Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries where she focused on filling critical life-history gaps for three seahorse species in peninsular Malaysia and developed a global estimate of the number of seahorses taken globally in bycatch. After finishing her MS degree, Julia joined the IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group as the Programme Officer, where she developed conservation strategies and coordinated IUCN Red List assessments for sharks, rays, and chimaeras.
External Advisors
Gavin McDonald
Project Researcher
Sustainable Fisheries Group
Gavin grew up just outside of Boston, spending his summers at beaches throughout New England. With a strong interest in science and math, Gavin began his career as a mechanical engineer. He holds both a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech, along with a Master Professionnel in Integrated Manufacturing from École Nationale Supérieure d'Arts et Métiers (ENSAM) in Metz, France. After three years working as a Research Engineer at the aerospace research and development company Busek, he decided to go back to school to follow his lifelong passion for coastal marine conservation. Gavin received a Master's degree from the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at UCSB. For his thesis work, he developed a model to quantify the socioeconomic value that non-consumptive private recreational boaters place on the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. While at Bren he worked as a scientific diver for PISCO (Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans) and as a research assistant for NCEAS (the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis). Now a Project Researcher at the Sustainable Fisheries Group, his interests lie in using science to improve fisheries management for the benefit of both conservation and the livelihoods of fishers. His work at SFG includes bio-economic modeling, data-limited fisheries assessment and management, and data collection and management. Gavin is a PADI Divemaster and AAUS Scientific Diver.
Inés López Ercilla
Technical Coordinator
Kanan Kay Alliance
Inés was born in Puerto Morelos (Mexican Caribbean) and grew up in Spain where she
graduated from the Univeristy Complutense of Madrid with a Bachelor’s of Biology. She
also holds a Master’s degree in Protected Areas Management and Ecoregional
Development from the University of International Cooperation (Costa Rica) and she is
a PADI instructor. Prior to graduating, she spent a summer in Kas (Turkey) where she
conducted a biological survey to establish a marine protected area. She also worked in
developing management tools for this MPA and became a scientific diver.
Inés then coordinated the Spanish committee of IUCN, where she learned about
environmental policy at national and international level. With this background, she went back to Mexico and worked in a MPA for the National Commission of Protected Areas
(CONANP) conducting biological monitoring and research in coral reef ecosystems.
She currently serves as the technical coordinator for the Kanan Kay Alliance, focusing on working with small-
scale fishing cooperatives to strengthen a network of fish refuge (no-take zones). Her
work now focuses on understanding how creative community-based solutions match
with the best science to boost marine conservation.
