Gabrielle Carmine, Ph.D. 

Dr. Gabrielle Carmine is currently an Earth Commons Postdoctoral Fellow at Georgetown University. As a marine sustainability scientist, she uses interdisciplinary frameworks & methods, integrating them with geospatial analysis to study ocean conservation, marine biodiversity, industrial fishing & their governance structures. Her work focuses on industrial fishing and identifying avenues to protect marine life from its impacts on the high seas, or the ~2/3 of the ocean lying beyond a nation’s exclusive economic zone. She obtained her PhD from Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment in Marine Science & Conservation, where she was part of the Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab, directed by Dr. Patrick N. Halpin. Her research examined how fishing on the high seas is conducted and led by corporate actors without appropriate accountability by regional international governing bodies (RFMOs), and the ways this state of affairs may negatively impact conservation of high seas biodiversity. Using geospatial analyses of satellite-derived apparent fishing activity, she quantified and examined high seas fisheries dynamics through their beneficial ownership, governance under RFMOs, and possible solutions through the recently agreed United Nations treaty for Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ). She engages actively in these governance mechanisms, attending and presenting her research formally at various UN meetings since 2019.