Marine Climate Impacts and Adaptation
 Profile
: Dr Tom Okey
Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation; Scientist-in-Residence,
Bamfield Marine Science Centre; Adjunct Professor, UVic School
of Environmental Studies; Science Director, Conservation Science
Institute
Current activities
Dr Okey works as a marine ecologist and conservation
biologist, studying the scientific, management and policy issues
related to,
- the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems.
- He is working to distinguish climate impacts from those caused
by fisheries, coastal watershed modification, and pollution.
- Dr. Okey is helping to develop Australia’s capacity
to assess and predict climate change impacts to marine communities
and ecosystems. One of his initiatives is to develop Australia’s
ecosystem modelling and ecosystem-based fisheries management
capacities. Other Australian projects include evaluation
of the causes of prawn catch declines and assessing the impacts
of trawling on soft sediment communities of the Gulf of Carpentaria.
- He
has developed international collaborations on evaluating
climate impacts on the marine ecosystems, notably ways for
North American and Australian scientists and agencies to
collaborate and combine efforts and to develop strategies
and tactics to assist national and international policy-makers.
Background
Dr Okey's research has ranged from subtidal experimental studies
of the effects of natural disturbances and food subsidies on
marine soft sediment communities to broad syntheses of ecosystem
knowledge and fisheries impacts using and refining food web
trophodynamic modeling techniques.
Dr Okey is helping to develop Australia’s capacity to
assess and predict climate change impacts to marine communities
and ecosystems. Other research has included:
- marine ecological and human health risk and impact assessments
- a number of seagoing oceanographic expeditions
- cutting edge analyses of marine fishery management and policies.
Dr Okey has:
- conducted and contributed to marine protected area analyses
- assembled a scientific advisory panel on marine protected
area creation
- helped guide and develop related marine conservation legislation.
He has also developed:
- innovative conservation education programs and curricula
- and implemented a coastal habitat restoration program
- an approach to assess public preferences for land use alternatives
- economic incentive approaches to greenhouse gas emissions
reductions.
Dr Okey is the founder and current science Director for the
Conservation Science Institute, an organization that provides
science support and education for conservation goals. During
the late 1990s, he was the director of the Center for Marine
Conservation’s Pacific Fisheries Program. He expanded
that program from areas adjacent to California, Oregon, and
Washington to include those adjacent to Alaska and Hawai’i.
During this time, Dr Okey also:
- chaired a national working group on Essential Fish Habitat
- sat on Marine Mammal Take Teams
- developed marine protected area strategies and teams.
In 1998, Dr Okey joined the Fisheries Centre
at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada, where he began contributing to the refinement
of a workshop-based collaborative approach to integrating ecosystem
knowledge from broad scientific communities into whole food
web trophodynamic ecosystem models.
Academic qualifications
Dr Okey has completed:
- a Bachelor of Science, in Biology / Environmental Studies,
from the St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York, USA,
in 1986
- extended studies in coastal biology, from the Scripps Institution
of Oceanography, La Jolla, California, USA, in 1987
- a Master of Science in Marine Science, from the Moss Landing
Marine Laboratories, and San Jose State University, California,
in 1993
- a Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology, from the
University of British Columbia in 2004.
Achievements
Dr Okey has received numerous awards in recognition of his
work including:
- a Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation, from
the Pew Institute for Ocean Science, in 2007
- the Thomas M Frost Award for Excellence in Graduate Research,
ESA Aquatic Section, in 2004
- the Cecil and Kathleen Morrow Scholarship in 2002
- Grants from the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council
Restoration Program during the late 1990s
- a grant for the Pacific Fisheries Project, from
the Moore Family Foundation in 1997
- an Environmental Education Grant, from the US Environmental
Protection Agency in 1995
- a San Francisco Bay Conservation Grant, from the
Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment in
1995
- a grant for public survey of land uses at NAS Alameda, from
the San Francisco Foundation in 1995
- a research grant, from the Geological Society of
America in 1993
- a Harold T Sterns Fellowship, from the Geological
Society of America in 1992
- a Marine Biology Research Grant, from David Packard
organisation in 1990
- an Oceanographic and Marine Biology Trust Scholarship,
from the Earl and Ethel Myers trust, in 1990
- an Oceanographic and Marine Biology Trust Scholarship,
from the Earl and Ethel Myers trust, in 1989
Publications
Related
Contact
Scientist-in-Residence, Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre
Bamfield, BC, V0R 1B0, Canada
Phone: (250) 728-3301 x365
Fax: (250) 728-3452
Email: tokey@bms.bc.ca
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