Eric Gilman

Marine Science Advisor

IUCN Global Marine Programme: fisheries by-catch, tuna fisheries, coastal ecosystem responses to relative sea-level rise, coastal and marine ecology

Eric Gilman joined the IUCN Global Marine Programme in August 2007. Eric has been in the environmental science field for over 15 years, starting at the Pohnpei Authority in the Federated States of Micronesia, Office of the Governor of the Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Audubon Society, and most recently for the Blue Ocean Institute. He received his Master’s Degree in Marine Resources Management, Department of Oceanography, Oregon State University and Bachelor of Arts Degree from Wesleyan University, and is a PhD candidate at the University of Tasmania, Australia. Eric’s publications and popular articles are on fisheries bycatch, coastal ecosystem responses to climate change, wetlands ecology and management, site‐planning, and community‐based protected areas.

Eric’s two programme areas for the IUCN Global Marine Programme involve improved sustainability of marine capture fisheries and adaptation to coastal ecosystem responses to climate change. Four central projects in these two programmes include:

• Working with the Hawaii Longline Association to conduct research to identify effective and commercially methods to minimize the unwanted capture of sea turtles, seabirds and sharks. Substantial ecological, economic and social problems result from interactions between pelagic marine capture fisheries and sensitive species groups, which are particularly sensitive to increased mortality above natural levels due to their life history traits.

• In collaboration with the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, conducting business planning to conserve leatherback sea turtles in the Pacific Ocean. Leatherback sea turtle populations are declining at all major Pacific Ocean nesting colonies, with major populations of leatherback sea turtles in Mexico, Costa Rica and Malaysia having declined more than 90 percent in the past two decades.

• Subsequent to serving as a Visiting Scientist at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, continuing to lead the development of FAO’s ‘Technical Guidelines for Responsible Fisheries: Reducing Sea Turtle Interactions and Mortality in Marine Capture Fisheries’.

• Organizing a Sustainable Tuna Roundtable improve communication between the tuna fishing industry, retail industry and seafood buyers, in part, to increase the factual basis of fishery sustainability assessments, and ultimately seafood sourcing policies.

• Improving the understanding of coastal ecosystem responses to climate change and alternative adaptation approaches to minimize losses of coastal ecosystem area and health and provision of ecosystem services and products.