Save Our Seas Foundation presents new Scientific Team

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

After a long and rewarding collaboration with the Save Our Seas Foundation, Dr. Rupert Ormond has reached retirement age and has therefore decided to resign from his role as Chief Scientist of the Save Our Seas Foundation.

We sincerely thank Dr. Ormond for all his great work in the past years.

Dr. Ormond will continue his activities for the Joint Basking Shark Project: Photo-Identification Website and West Coast Shark Centre.

As per July 1st, 2011, Save Our Seas will work with a Scientific Team, consisting of Sarah Fowler and Dr. Mark Meekan. Please find attached short biographies of both scientists.

While Sarah Fowler will act as a principal scientist, Dr. Mark Meekan will supervise a number of Save Our Seas supported projects in the Indian Ocean, Micronesia, Australia and species-specific projects.

Save Our Seas CEOs Peter Verhoog and Georgina Wiersma will supervise all media and educational projects.

We are convinced this new team, with its varied skills, experience and very broad expertise, will offer the Foundation the necessary tools for a prosperous future with an even better focus on marine conservation, education and awareness.

We are all looking forward to an exciting and valuable collaboration that will contribute to the success and growth of the Save Our Seas Foundation!


Peter Verhoog
Georgina Wiersma

Chief Executive Officers
Save Our Seas Foundation

Geneva, Switzerland, June 21st, 2011

* * *

Meet the Save Our Seas Foundation Scientific Team:

SARAH FOWLER has a First Class Joint Honours Degree in zoology and marine zoology from the University College of North Wales, an MSc in conservation from University College London, and 30 years of professional experience as a marine biodiversity conservation expert. Sarah has worked in various capacities for government departments, national and international non-governmental organisations, and a biodiversity consultancy. In the 1980s, she was Deputy Head of the Marine Science Branch and Diving Officer of the UK government’s conservation advisory agency. She left to become Director of Marine and Coastal Services for the ethical biodiversity consultancy, NatureBureau, where she worked on a wide range of national and international biodiversity conservation projects and the development of biodiversity polices, later becoming Managing Director. Sarah was appointed to the IUCN-World Conservation Union’s Shark Specialist Group in 1991, chaired it for many years, and is now its vice-chair for international treaties. She founded the European Elasmobranch Association and its UK member, the Shark Trust (and is a Trustee of the latter). She has served terms as a Ministerial appointee to the board of the UK government advisory bodies English Nature and on the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. She was appointed as Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to marine conservation in 2004, and a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation in 2005. Sarah left NatureBureau in 2010 to work as an independent consultant.

DR MARK MEEKAN is a Principal Research Scientist with the Australian Institute of Marine Science and is based in Perth, Western Australia. He is a tropical fish ecologist with interests ranging from the early life history of reef fishes to the ecosystem role and function of elasmobranchs. Dr Meekan has published over 100 papers in international journals and is a member of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. He is the representative for the eastern Indian Ocean section of the Ocean Tracking Network, a global initiative that develops and facilitates tracking programs of marine organisms around the world. In Australia, he is a committee member of the Australian Animal Tagging and Monitoring System (AATAMS), a project that funds and maintains networks of sensors for tracking of marine animals around the Australian coastline. He currently supervises post- doctoral fellows and PhD students on working shark and reef fish projects throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

* * *

The Save Our Seas Foundation is committed to protecting our oceans by funding research, education, awareness and conservation projects focusing on the major threats to the marine environment. http://saveourseas.com/