Favourite species? 
No favourites. I'm passionate about all.

David’s passion for animals and the underwater world started at a young age in southern Australia. He now has over 30 years of experience as a fisheries biologist, mostly in tropical and sub-tropical regions. Since 2010 David has worked independently across diverse marine fisheries-related including fishery assessments, the effects of climate variability and change on fisheries, developing and implementing marine education and training programs, and fisheries management plan training and development. David now specialises in delivering capacity building initiatives in tropical coastal fisheries monitoring and management in developing nations, in particular the Pacific, where he has extensive knowledge and experience working alongside national agencies, NGO’s and communities. David co-developed the Community Marine Monitoring Toolkit for Pacific Island communities and has led the development of Pacific community leadership programs. He continues to strive towards changes in the region that will provide more resilient coastal fisheries and food security for Pacific Islanders.

David has led and worked with fishers and fisheries stakeholders at all levels throughout Australia and internationally on research projects and consultancies, has sat on many fisheries’ advisory committees, and has authored well over 100 scientific papers, technical reports and popular articles.
 

Current projects:

• Development of a context-appropriate and scalabale coastal fisheries management approach for Pacific Island communities

• Adapting the Community Marine Monitoring Toolkit for French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna, the Solomon Islands and the Marshall Islands.

• Development of a tailored coastal fisheries harvest strategy approach for the Pacific region.

• Development of a food security plan for communities of the South Fly region of Papua New Guinea.