Whitney is a Senior Ocean Scientist working with the California Oceans Fisheries Team to advance sustainable fisheries in North America, and in small-scale coastal fisheries globally; as well as reducing whale entanglements and shark bycatch through our Making the Sea Safer for Wildlife program.
Whitney brings an interdisciplinary background in marine science and social-ecological systems. Over the last 15+ years, she has worked to design and conduct quantitative and qualitative analyses in a range of systems from global coral reef fisheries to the dynamics of the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem; addressing questions that span processes that include ecological dynamics, climate change, seafood access, nutritional security, global trade, and community-based management of marine resources. Whitney also spent years immersed and inspired by the ecosystem of Shark Bay, Western Australia and the incredible social complexity of its resident bottlenose dolphins; and has accumulated over 400 days-at-sea while studying various marine systems.
Prior to joining TNC, Whitney worked in teams at the Department of Environmental Studies at UC Santa Cruz, The Pacific Planetary Health Alliance, The National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at UC Santa Barbara, and with the UC Santa Cruz Fisheries Collaborative program at NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center. Whitney holds a PhD from the University of California San Diego, and is currently a Research Associate in the Department of Environmental Studies at UC Santa Cruz. Outside of work, Whitney finds lots of excuses to be in nature, from camping with her family, to backpacking in the Sierras, to racing outrigger canoes with fellow hydrophiles.
More about Whitney: https://www.thrivingoceanscollective.org/whitney-friedman