Geoffrey Shester

Phone: (831) 655-6251
Email: gshester@stanford.edu
Ph.D. Candidate (5th Year): Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (IPER)
CV

My research focuses on the ecosystem-based management of marine systems and how humans can achieve a balance between resource protection and sustainable use.  As a student in Stanford’s IPER program, I have learned to integrate the fields of Marine Ecology, Geography, Economics, Public Policy, and Anthropology.  I study the ecological effects of fishing and analyze approaches to manage these impacts.  My goal is to develop innovative strategies to protect the features of the ocean that make it so productive in ways that make sense for people who rely on the ocean for their livelihood.  My inspiration comes from years of spending time underwater studying marine life and from the friendships I have developed with the fishermen I work with.

For my dissertation research, I work with an international, interdisciplinary team on the National Science Foundation’s Baja Biocomplexity Project, led by Fiorenza Micheli. Through the project, we study the environmental, social, and economic influences on the sustainability of small-scale, cooperative fisheries along the Pacific Coast of Baja California, Mexico.  I am directing three projects which form the chapters of my dissertation:

1. Evaluating the impacts of traps and gillnets on seafloor habitats
2. Reducing bycatch using a spatial zoning approach
3. Geographic analysis of lobster fishermen behavior

Through these projects, I have developing a diverse array of field methods (fisheries observer program, participatory studies of fishermen using GPS, at-sea interviews, scuba dive surveys, fishing gear experiments) and analysis techniques (bioeconomic modeling, geographic information systems, multivariate statistics).  My Dissertation Committee includes Fiorenza Micheli, Rosamond Nayor, Lawrence Goulder, and Barton H. “Buzz” Thompson.  I also work on a number of other projects, including agent-based modeling of fisheries, common property resource analysis of Baja fisheries, modeling the Hawaiian precious coral fishery, and modeling the economic value of mangrove fish production.

Already, I have been applying my Stanford education as a Science and Policy Advisor to the international organization, Oceana, working on seafloor habitat protection, marine protected areas, and sea turtle conservation [link to sea turtle document].  In this role, he has co-authored policy proposals that resulted in the largest network of marine protected areas in the U.S., implemented in 2006.  He also serves on the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis working group on “Scientific Frameworks for Ecosystem-based Management”.  Before coming to Stanford, Geoff worked in Alaska as a conservation coordinator for Oceana, an intern for the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, and an outdoor environmental educator. 

Publications:

Shester, G. and J. Warrenchuk. 2007. U.S. Pacific Coast Experiences in Achieving Deep-Sea Coral Conservation and Marine Habitat Protection.  In George, R.Y. and Cairns, S. (eds.), Conservation and Adaptive Management of Seamount and Deep-Sea Coral Ecosystems. Publisher RSMAS, University of Miami.

Shester, G.  2007.  Forging a Future for Pacific Sea Turtles.  Oceana U.S. Pacific Offices.  [PDF]

Shester, G. and J. Ayers.  2005.  A cost effective approach to protecting deep-sea coral and sponge ecosystems with an application to Alaska’s Aleutian Islands region.  In Freiwald A, Roberts J.M (eds), 2005, Cold-water Corals and Ecosystems. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, pp 1151-1169 [PDF]