The International Pole & Line Foundation is delighted to announce that Dr. Paul Medley has joined our Scientific & Technical Advisory Committee (STAC). Paul Medley specializes in numerical modelling of fisheries; he has vast experience of working in the Caribbean and in the Asian region providing scientific advice to fishery management. Working mainly as a freelance, independent consultant, he has developed new techniques of multi-species stock assessment based on maximum likelihood, Bayesian methods and decision theory. During his long and successful career, he has worked in numerous small-scale fisheries and has developed new software tools suitable for small-scale co-managed fisheries. He is passionate about adaptive science-based management of fisheries and educating fisheries officers and managers on numerical skills.
For many years, Dr. Medley has been working with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) in the development of their assessment methodologies and how they can be applied consistently to both large and small-scale fisheries. He leads numerous MSC assessments taking lead in Principle 1: stock management assessment for a variety of fisheries ranging from temperate pelagic to the tropical demersal species. He has also experience in managing donor-funded projects in developing countries and has helped establish a science program in the developing world; teaching and educating fisheries managers and policymakers.
Paul has First Class Honours degree in Biology and Computer Science at the University of York, UK, and a PhD from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine (now Imperial College London).
“As someone who has attended scientific meetings of the IOTC, I see enormous value in building numerical skills of coastal states’ scientists to support the IOTC process and management of the stocks. I am excited to be part of the IPNLF STAC, having worked with IPNLF in helping the Maldives manage its pole and line fishing and contributing to the international effort to ensure all IOTC tuna fisheries become sustainable. I’m mostly looking forward to continuing this work, helping coastal states, in particular, protect their resources for the future.”, says Dr. Medley.