Marine Conservation Institute Announces Gail Osherenko Has Joined Its Board of Directors

Seattle, WA (January 7, 2014) — Marine Conservation Institute today announced that Gail Osherenko has joined its Board of Directors. Osherenko, who has decades of experience in marine and coastal conservation, as well as Arctic affairs, is a project scientist in law and policy at the Marine Science Institute of the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB). She has taught courses in coastal and ocean law and policy in the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management and the Environmental Studies Program at UCSB. Her research has focused on property rights and sea tenure, the role of marine spatial planning and ocean zoning, the public trust doctrine and the effectiveness of the California coastal management regime.

“As we move into a very busy 2014 for Marine Conservation Institute, we are extremely pleased to add Gail to our already strong Board,” said Dr. Lance Morgan, president of Marine Conservation Institute. “Her extensive experience and guidance will be highly valuable while moving forward with large scale initiatives, such as our recently announced Global Ocean Refuge System (GLORES).”

“I have been impressed by the work of Marine Conservation Institute since its founding in 1996,” said Osherenko. “It is exciting to join the organization at such a critical juncture. The GLORES initiative is a visionary step in the organization’s long term commitment to biodiversity conservation, and I look forward to being a part of that.”

Osherenko was a principal investigator in the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) working group on Ocean Ecosystem-Based Management: The Role of Zoning, and a co-author of the most cited paper on marine spatial planning (Crowder et al., “Resolving Mismatches in U.S. Ocean Governance,” Science vol. 313, 4 Aug. 2006). She is past president and a current member of the Board of the Environmental Defense Center, a non-profit environmental law firm serving the Central California Coast.

She is also a film maker and made her first public film in 2006, Arctic Expedition, which premiered at the 2007 Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF). Her film Dark Side of the Loon, premiered at the SBIFF in 2009, has been an official selection at other festivals. Her most recent film is Loon Chick’s First Summer.

The Board of Directors for Marine Conservation Institute also includes (in alphabetical order): John Davis, Gene Duvernoy, Sylvia Earle, Jim Greenwood (emeritus), David Johns (chair), Bob Kerr, Amy Mathews-Amos, Lance Morgan, Elliott Norse and Les Watling.

About Marine Conservation Institute

Marine Conservation Institute is a team of highly-experienced marine scientists and environmental-policy advocates dedicated to saving ocean life for us and future generations.  The organization’s goal is to help the world create an urgently-needed worldwide system of strongly protected areas—the Global Ocean Refuge System (GLORES)—a strategic, cost-effective way to ensure the future diversity and abundance of marine life.  Founded in 1996, Marine Conservation Institute is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization with offices in Seattle, near San Francisco and in Washington DC.