Advisory Board

The Marine Beacon Advisory Board consists of relevant fisheries stakeholders, policy makers and scientists, each providing oversight to ensure the project stays on track to provide the most valid and up to date outputs that are applicable for use to reduce bycatch of PETS.

David Kaplan, IRD

Dr Kaplan is a Senior researcher at IRD in France, with a research focus on assessing the effects of different forms of spatial and non-spatial fisheries management on marine populations using the lenses of meta-population modeling, experimental marine ecology, species distribution modeling, analysis of fisheries catch-effort data and oceanography. He works on tropical tuna fisheries, in particular the EU Purse Seine fleets in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, since ~2010. And is responsible for IRD participation in REDUCE project.
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Paddy Walker, Dutch Elasmobranch Society

Dr Paddy Walker has a background in the population dynamics of skates and rays in the North Sea and is involved in relevant ICES working groups and the work of IUCN.

She is a founding member of the Dutch Elasmobranch Society and is interested in sustainable fisheries, especially in relation to sharks and rays. Paddy has been involved in projects focussed on the landing obligation, bycatch survivability, and fishery best practices including selectivity and mitigation practices.
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Ruth Fernandez, ICES

Dr Fernandez has an academic background in cetacean trophic ecology and genetics. She has been working in ICES since 2015 where she is currently the Advice Professional officer for the Working Groups on bycatch of protected species, marine mammal ecology, seabirds, and harp and hooded seals among others.
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Manuel Bellanger, IFREMER

Dr Bellanger is an economist at IFREMER in France with a background in fisheries economics and bycatch of protected species, policy design among other topics. He is involved in the project on common dolphin bycatch in the Bay of Biscay. He has a particular interest in the integrative assessment of mitigation measures in addition to the stakeholder engagement side of our work.
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Ed Farrell, KFO

Dr Farrell has a background as a fisheries scientist working on fish biology, stock identification and elasmobranchs. He has worked as a scientist with fisheries in Ireland and the EU and has been involved in IUCN and Irish and European elasmobranch groups. He is a member of the LIFE CIBBRiNA project consortium. He is currently the Chief Scientist and Sustainability Officer for the Killybegs Fisheries Organisation in Ireland where he deals with arange of topics including pelagic, demersal and crustacean fisheries.
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