Biography

Leah grew up in North Carolina and completed her BSc in Zoology and NGO Management at North Carolina State University. As an undergraduate, she studied raccoon foraging behaviors and helped develop a wildlife management strategy for Olive baboons in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania. After graduating, Leah worked at Sanibel Sea School in Florida, where she did field work, developed public education materials, taught courses about marine science and seafood sustainability, and collaborated with other marine conservation NGOs. During her time in Florida she became interested in fisheries, which led her to UBC to pursue her MSc with Daniel Pauly. 

For her thesis, Leah will use shark catch data from Sea Around Us Project catch reconstructions and other sources to estimate the magnitude, global distribution and species composition of the shark fin trade. As fishing pressure on sharks increases, many species are declining rapidly. Information about where this fishing pressure is coming from can lead to more effective conservation measures, and hopefully a brighter future for sharks.