Fiona Webster Email & Phone Number

Joondalup

Joondalup

Perth

Assessment of Western Australian fisheries for sustainability against the Marine Stewardship Council standards

Perth

I am presently working as an independent contractor to the state and federal government and also to an international organization. Current contracts include• Department of Fisheries Western Australia – image and data analysis, interpretation and reporting for a long term coral reef monitoring program at the Coco’s Keeling and Christmas Islands. • CSIRO –Division of Marine and Atmospheric Science - image and data analysis and interpretation for a long term coral reef monitoring in north Western Australia.• South Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP) – Coral Reef Health Specialist. Planning, assessment and recommendations for Marine Protected Areas in the Kingdom of Tonga.

Kingdom Of Tonga

In this role I fulfilled a lifelong dream of working in conservation with local communities in a developing country. I worked in the Tongan Fisheries Department helping local villages to assess the status of their inshore fisheries and providing management recommendations. The outcomes of my 18 month project were:• Establishment of creel and market surveys (inshore fisheries assessments)• Training staff and community members in data collection and analysis• Development of databases (Microsoft Access)• Inshore fisheries assessments for different island and reef areas• Community liasion and communication of results to local villages through workshops

Perth, Western Australia

As a supervising scientist at RPS my key role was as a coral reef specialist involved with the 65M dollar dredge monitoring program at Barrow Island. My role primarily involved the design and conduct of baseline surveys and coral health monitoring in relation to dredging activities. I worked as a scientific diver and a team leader in the field - co-ordinating the activities for teams of up to 24 people involving two vessels. I was also responsible for data management, analysis and reporting in relation to the marine monitoring program. I helped to develop the HSE procedures in relation to field operations and am committed to an incident free workplace. Some of my responsibilities on this project included:• Coral reef baseline studies – assessment of coral survival, biodiversity, recruitment, size class frequency and growth over an 18 month period• Mapping of benthic communities • Coral reef health monitoring • Water quality assessments• Sediment sampling• Development of HSE procedures• Assessments of intertidal and subtidal primary habitat assessments• Drop camera and towed video assessments

Perth, Western Australia

I have worked at the Department of Fisheries intermittently over 10 year period, initially as a Technical Officer and then as a Research Scientist once I graduated from my PhD. I worked on a range of different projects during this period as outlined below:• Long term coral reef monitoring at the Abrolhos Islands, Coco’s Keeling and Christmas Islands• Invertebrate assessments (sea cucumber, giant clam and Lambis lambis) at the Coco’s Keeling Islands• Long term monitoring of western rock lobster (puerulis settlement assessments, commercial and recreational catches, breeding stock surveys)• Assessments of recreational and commercial fishing activities to coral communities at the Abrolhos Islands

Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia

My PhD Focused the relative roles of nutrients versus herbivores on coral reefs and the consequences for coral recruitment. This project was strongly field based and undertaken independently in remote north Western Australia.

Bachelor'S Degree, Science

Doctor Of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Coral Reef Ecology