Marie-Joelle Rochet, Ph.D.

Research

Marie-Joëlle Rochet is a research scientist for IFREMER, an oceanographic institute in France. Her Pew fellowship was aimed at examining whether selective fishing is more harmful to marine communities than exploitation, using tools ranging from modeling to field sampling and a worldwide comparative analysis. Rochet focused on ways to develop theoretical predictions of the contrasted effects of selective versus even fishing on exploited communities, and to gather empirical support for these predictions. She has developed methods to assess exploited fish communities and has conducted research to estimate and analyze fisheries discards. She also has been involved in several national and regional studies to help fishers adapt to the emerging European Union Common Fisheries Policy, which includes a landing obligation that represents a major change in the discard policy. The project has contributed to efforts to improve fishers’ and the general public’s awareness of fishing’s impacts on biodiversity by involving stakeholders in data acquisition and putting forward the debate on selective fishing and the bycatch problem. To learn more about Rochet, visit her bio online. http://annuaire.ifremer.fr/cv/16569/