Madeline Green

Who I am

I am highly motivated to help conserve, protect and manage species and natural systems. I’ve been obsessed with sharks for as long as I can remember and the fact that I am a shark scientist is still a shock to me today. Personally, I want to use my skills as a molecular ecologist to solve conservation challenges. I’m motivated by the challenge global fisheries pose to socio-ecological systems and threatened species, and for the past five years that’s where I have focused my research attention. I strongly believe that molecular tools will be key to monitoring fisheries in the future.

I am an avid scuba diver, hiker and beachgoer. During the summer you will find me near, in or on water and in winter I’ll be at the top of a snowy mountain. I feel extremely grateful I get to work as a marine scientist and I hope my research provides positive solutions that benefit marine ecosystems globally. I care deeply for these ecosystems and want to use my training and experience to find a balance between protecting the livelihoods of coastal communities and ensuring healthy oceans for the future.

Where I work

I live in Hobart, Tasmania, the island-state at the bottom of Australia. Our small city has three large scientific institutions, which means that Hobart has the highest number of scientists per capita in the country. We conduct molecular research in a number of University of Tasmania laboratories. Tasmania is a beautiful place with pristine wilderness areas from rugged mountains to turquoise waters. Our research projects aren’t always based in Tasmania, so I travel around Australia collecting samples from various fisheries.

What I do

I am a research scientist and project leader for the Molecular Monitoring domain at the University of Tasmania. My research involves developing novel molecular tools for estimating fisheries landings and monitoring IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated) activities. Some of my projects currently involve developing methods using environmental DNA to reconstruct target and bycatch for fisheries vessels operating in the Pacific and Indian oceans.

I have worked in the field of molecular ecology for more than 10 years and received my PhD from the University of Tasmania in 2019. My previous research has involved estimating stock structure, population size and breeding behaviour for a number of shark, ray and fish species (more than 10 species, over 6,000 samples, 19 scientific publications). My time is spent split between building relationships with key stakeholders for my projects, collecting samples from observers or on fishing vessels, laboratory work, data analysis and writing reports and scientific papers.