Myriam was born and grew up in Tunisia. After high school she studied for two years at the higher institute of preparatory studies in Biology and Geology (ISEP-BG) and was then accepted to the National Agronomic Institute of Tunisia (INAT) where she completed her engineering degree in fisheries and environment. In 2013, Myriam joined The Sea Around Us project to begin working on the catch reconstructions of certain Mediterranean and Arab countries. She is currently working on her master’s degree in fisheries under the supervision of Dr. Daniel Pauly.

Dyhia Belhabib is currently a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with the Sea Around Us (UBC). As the Africa Lead of the Sea Around Us, she reconstructs catch and effort time series for countries of Africa, where quantitative data are severely lacking, using a different range of innovative approaches. She engages directly with different local and regional groups for the use of fisheries data, and the development of policy and management plans. Dyhia is collaborating with several organizations and experts on different research fronts including the impacts of fisheries on local economies, the footprint of armed conflicts and natural disasters on global fisheries, and with NGOs, analyzing the impacts of development projects on fisher’s communities in Senegal, the footprint of illegal fishing and piracy in Somali waters. Dyhia also holds an advisory position on the scientific board of the Research and Development Division of the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture in Algeria.

Krista is a from a small town in Ontario, Canada. While her initial undergraduate focus was Biological Anthropology, she found that her long-time interests in marine conservation could not be suppressed. As such, she went on to study Marine Biology and Zoology at James Cook University in Australia. Throughout her undergraduate years, Krista had the opportunity to participate in field work all over the world including Costa Rica, Kenya, Seychelles and Borneo. In September 2011, she arrived at the University of British Columbia to do her Masters under the supervision of Dr. Daniel Pauly. Her thesis focused on the carbon emissions of the world’s fishing fleets since 1950 and what the “true” cost of fishing is when its environmental impacts are adequately considered. She now works as a research assistant on fishing effort and CO2 databases.

Outside of her research, Krista loves to read and participate in outdoor activities. In particular she enjoys scuba diving, camping, beach walking and spending time with her dog, Nelly.

Dalal has always had an affinity for the ocean. Born and raised in Kuwait, she spent her youth exploring the coral reefs, mudflats and sea grass beds of the Persian Gulf. In 1991 she witnessed first hand the devastating effects of war on the local environment and vowed to do everything she could to restore it.

After graduating with BA in Environmental Studies from Middlebury College, VT, Dalal received a Watson Fellowship to travel to Panama, the Bahamas, New Zealand, Fiji, Palau, the Seychelles and South Africa to research the extent to which cultural context influences elasmobranch conservation efforts. Armed with nothing but a 5kg backpack and 20kg of SCUBA gear, she spent a year backpacking solo, logging over 200+ dives, and coming face to face with bull sharks, tiger sharks, great whites, and giant mantas. During this time, she also slept on 66 different beds, ate 9 jars of peanut butter and took 5, 538 photos.

She briefly returned to the “real world,” working as a research assistant to Dr. Jeremy Jackson at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, where she investigated the environmental and economic effects of the “rats and cockroaches” of the ocean, (i.e. the invasive species that will become permanent components of ecosystems).

Dalal comes to the Sea Around Us to work under the supervision of Dr. Daniel Pauly. Her research interests lie in the historical marine ecology of the Persian Gulf. Through a variety of historical documents she hopes to assess and quantify changes in the distribution and abundance of marine species in the Gulf, in order to establish more accurate baselines from which to measure changes.  Her main goal is to understand the relationship between social history and changing marine environments in hopes of more successfully managing marine resources.

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