Born in Vancouver, Sarika grew up on the coasts of British Columbia, spending much of her time on Quadra Island. She went to University in California at Berkeley where she studied Marine Biology and, during this time, did research in the Turks and Caicos Islands and Tahiti. She moved back to Vancouver to begin her MSc at the Fisheries Centre at UBC with Daniel Pauly.

Sarika is investigating management in the high seas. These areas beyond national jurisdiction comprise the majority of our oceans, and are currently the areas least affected by humans. However, recently, fishing on the high seas has increased, and some fish stocks have already collapsed. So who is responsible? Although Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) are the legal entities established to conserve and manage the high seas as decreed by the Law of the Sea, their current effectiveness has come into question. Sarika assesses the global effectiveness of RFMOs by using a two-tiered approach: first in theory, as determined by their conformity with RFMO best practices; and then in practice, as determined by the state of their stocks.  Her thesis is available here. 

Publications (peer-reviewed):

Cullis-Suzuki, S., and Pauly, D. 2010. Failing the high seas: a global evaluation of regional fisheries management organizations. Marine Policy, 34:5, 1036-1042.

Cullis-Suzuki, S., and Pauly, D. 2010. Marine Protected Area Costs as ‘Beneficial’ Fisheries Subsidies: A Global Evaluation. Coastal Management, 38(2), 113-121.

Alder, J., Cullis-Suzuki, S., Karpouzi, V., Kaschner, K., Mondoux, S., Swartz, W., Trujillo, P., Watson, R., and Pauly, D. 2009. Aggregate performance in managing marine ecosystems of 53 maritime countries. Marine Policy, 34(3), 468-476.

Other publications:

Cullis-Suzuki, S., and Pauly, D. 2009. Evaluating global regional fisheries management organizations: methodology and scoring. Fisheries Centre Working Paper (12), University of British Columbia.

Cullis-Suzuki, S., and Pauly, D. 2008. Preliminary estimates of national and global costs of marine protected areas. p.85-90 In: Alder, J., and Pauly, D. (eds.) A comparative assessment of biodiversity, fisheries and aquaculture in 53 countries' Exclusive Economic Zones. Fisheries Centre Research Reports 16(7). Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia.

Popular articles:

Cullis-Suzuki, S. The UN experience. Sea Around Us newsletter (59), 2010.

Cullis-Suzuki, S. The Gulf between us. The Tyee, July 2010.