About Us

Steering Group

Duncan Currie

Duncan Currie has practiced international law and environmental law for over 25 years, and over that time has advised organisations, corporations and governments on a wide range of environmental issues including climate change, the law of the sea, whaling, fisheries, Antarctica, nuclear, liability, biosafety, toxic and chemical, forestry, mining, and waste issues. He has particular interests in the law of the sea, especially fisheries and biodiversity, climate change in the oceans context, and renewable energy. He regularly attends international meetings on these topics. Duncan has advised the DSCC on bottom trawling issues since its inception.

Susanna Fuller

Susanna Fuller is the Marine Conservation Coordinator at the Ecology Action Centre (EAC), based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The EAC has been an active member of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition since 2005. Susanna has been working on marine conservation issues, and particularly the impacts of fishing for since the 1990's. Susanna recently completed her Phd. on marine sponges in the Northwest Atlantic. She has also done extensive policy work both at the international and national level in Canada, and assisted in a review of the implementation of the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement for the Canadian government. Susanna sits on the NAFO Working Group on Ecosystem Approach to Management. She also completed a research project together with other conservation organizations, on the impacts of fishing gear in Canadian waters.

Matthew Gianni

Matthew Gianni is an independent advisor and advocate for ocean conservation based in the Netherlands. He is a co-founder of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition and is currently the Political and Policy Advisor to the coalition. Matthew regularly speaks on marine conservation issues at a variety of international fora, including the United Nations General Assembly oceans working group (UNICPOLOS); the Fisheries Committee of the European Parliament; and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has actively participated in fisheries and oceans related negotiations at the UN General Assembly, the UN FAO, Conferences of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity and elsewhere. He has authored several reports related to fisheries and marine biodiversity on the high seas.

Mirella Von Lindenfels

Mirella Von Lindenfels is an award winning communications expert and has been advising the DSCC campaign since 2004. With over 20 years' experience of media and communications work in the international non-governmental sector, including senior positions with Greenpeace and Amnesty International, Mirella founded Communications Inc in 2003. A specialist communicator in environmental issues, particularly in the oceans, she co-founded The International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) in 2006, with the aim of saving the Earth and all life on it.

Lance Morgan

Lance Morgan, PhD is President and CEO of the Marine Conservation Institute. Dr. Morgan is a marine biologist who received his PhD in Ecology from the University of California-Davis. His research interests range from zoology to conservation and he has studied taxa as diverse as deep sea corals, rockfishes, seabirds and orcas. He has explored the ocean as a scuba diver, aquanaut and submersible pilot. He has authored a number scientific reports on the environmental impacts of fishing methods and marine protected areas.

Sian Owen

Sian Owen has coordinated the global strategy for the DSCC since 2011. She is founder and principal consultant of Sustainability Options Consulting, working to accelerate change toward a new global economic system based on triple bottom line principles - people, planet and profit. Sian's role with the DSCC draws on extensive experience in programme development, policy and partnerships both as an independent and eight years in WWF-International's Global Marine Programme.

Sandrine Polti

Sandrine Polti is manager for the Protecting the Deep Sea Campaign at the Pew Charitable Trusts. After several years of scientific and academic research in fisheries and marine ecology, she joined the Brussels-based environmental community in 2006, focused on political challenges in fisheries management and conservation. She has participated in several European campaigns and advocated at, inter alia, Europeans institutions (Commission, Parliament, Council), national EU governments, Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (ICCAT, IOTC, WCPFC) and Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species.

Nathalie Rey

Nathalie Rey is a senior Oceans Policy Advisor at Greenpeace International. She joined the Political and Business Unit of Greenpeace International, in Amsterdam in 1999, and has worked on both forest and ocean related issues. She currently focuses on issues related to international oceans governance and marine conservation. She has a wide experience of representing Greenpeace at international environmental meetings, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species, the International Whaling Commission and oceans related negotiations at the UN General Assembly.

Lisa Speer

Lisa Speer directs the International Oceans Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental organization dedicated to protecting natural resources and public health with offices in the United States and China.Ms. Ms. Speer conducts advocacy in a variety of international fora to promote integrated, ecosystem based management of human activities on the high seas, with a particular focus on marine fisheries. She has served on US delegations to many high seas fisheries negotiations, and has testified before Congress and the United Nations on a variety of high seas conservation and management topics.

Monica Verbeek

Dr. Monica Verbeek is the executive director of Seas At Risk, an independent non-governmental European association of environmental organisations concerned with the protection and restoration of the marine environment. She also serves as vice president of the South Western Waters Regional Advisory Council for fisheries and as member of the executive committee of the Long Distance Regional Advisory Council. Prior to becoming executive director she held the post of fisheries policy officer with Seas At Risk and served, amongst others, as representative of environmental organisations at the Advisory Committee for Fisheries and Aquaculture of the European Commission and as European coordinator for the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition. Protection and conservation of the deep sea has been one of her priorities ever since she joined Seas At Risk.