The Steering Committee of WiMS is happy to welcome two new members: Batuli Yahya and Anne-Elise Nieblas. Batuli Yahya will serve as the Country Representative for Zanzibar and Anne-Elise Nieblas as the Country Representative for La Réunion.
Batuli Yahya
Batuli Yahya is from Zanzibar, Tanzania. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Fisheries Sciences and Aquaculture and a Masters degree in Marine Sciences, with a focus on marine and coastal resources management. She is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at the Institute of Marine Science, University of Dar es Salaam. Batuli previously worked at the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries in Zanzibar, from 2010 to 2016. During her time there she worked as a marine resource officer, as the head of the seaweed farming section and as national project coordinator for the project supporting aquaculture development in Zanzibar. She was also responsible for providing extension services, training and technical assistance to aqua farmers and fishers, developing research and projects, and sharing knowledge, skills and experiences with fishers, farmers and researchers. She coordinated and supervised various projects and was involved in the preparation of a business management plan for aqua farmers in Zanzibar and Zanzibar aquaculture development strategies. Currently, Batuli is an assistant lecturer and researcher of Marine Fisheries at the Institute of Marine Sciences of the University of Dar es Salaam. Her areas of focus include seaweed farming research, seagrass and coral reefs in fish assemblages.
Anne-Elise Nieblas
Anne-Elise Nieblas is an American living in La Réunion which is almost the exact antipode of where she was born and raised in southern California. Her path to La Réunion has been rather circuitous and equal parts challenging and fun. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of California, Los Angeles in Marine Biology and Environmental Studies, and then she moved to Tasmania, Australia to undertake her postgraduate work with the University of Tasmania and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. She finished her PhD in Quantitative Marine Science in 2010, having focused on climate change impacts on Australian upwelling zones and their fisheries. Then, over the next five years, she moved to Portugal for a postdoc at the University of Lisbon on Langrangian modelling of larval sardines, and then to Sète, France to complete several projects with the French Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea and the Institute for Research in Development (IRD), focusing on the links between the environment and fisheries. During that time, she got married, had two children, and at some point, she also learned French. Anne-Elise and her family moved to La Réunion about four years ago, where she began working frequently with the IRD and the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission on capacity development tools for fisheries stock assessment and standards for metadata. However, last year, she started a Company for Open Ocean Observations and Logging, which so far, is quite COOOL. Its mission is relatively unique in the region in that it aim to research, develop, design, deploy and commercialize scientific instrumentation to collect data on marine ecosystems and investigate marine population dynamics. It’s been a challenging year, but Anne-Elise is enjoying this new adventure. She is honoured to be part of the WiMS community and excited to take on the role of a Steering Committee member. She hopes that her background will complement the diverse experiences of the other WiMS members and will contribute a useful perspective in setting and achieving the objectives of this WiMS community.
The WiMS community warmly welcomes Batuli and Anne-Elise to the Steering Committee and wishes them good luck in their new roles!
