People

PETER WALDIE
Coastal Fisheries Scientist
The Nature Conservancy
peter.waldie@tnc.org

Peter (Pete) Waldie has a strong background in both the ecological and social aspects of coral reef fisheries. He completed his PhD at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, where he investigated the suitability of community-based management in conserving large, threatened, fishery-targeted coral reef fishes. Pete’s PhD research was conducted in New Ireland Province in Papua New Guinea, where he spent many months living in rural communities to gain a rich understanding of the benefits and pitfalls of customary, community-based governance.

Since completing his PhD, Pete has worked as a Coastal Fisheries Scientist for The Nature Conservancy, supporting community partners in Melanesia and Micronesia to effectively manage their fisheries. One such partnership in Papua New Guinea has culminated in the creation of a marine protected area network across a 2.4-million-hectare seascape and provided local resource owners with access to premium sustainable seafood markets in Hong Kong, directly incentivising sustainable resource management. Pete is working with leading Centre researchers to further advance this and other fisheries management strategies.

Read more about Pete’s research and the role of locally-managed marine conservation areas in protecting key fisheries here.

Publications

• Waldie PA, Almany GR, Sinclair‐Taylor TH, Hamilton RJ, Potuku T, Priest, MA, Rhodes KL, Robinson J, Cinner JE, Berumen ML. Restricted grouper reproductive migrations support community‐based management. Royal Society Open Science. 2016; 3(3):150694.
• Cortesi F, Feeney WE, Ferrari MCO, Waldie PA, Phillips GC, McClure EC, Sköld HN, Salzburger W, Marshall NJ, Cheney, KL. Phenotypic Plasticity Confers Multiple Fitness Benefits to a Mimic. Current Biology. 2015; 25:1–6.
• Robinson J, Graham NAJ, Cinner JE, Almany GR, Waldie PA. Fish and fisher behavior influence the vulnerability of groupers (Epinephelidae) to fishing at a multispecies spawning aggregation site. Coral Reefs. 2014.
• Waldie PA, Blomberg SP, Cheney KL, Goldizen AW, Grutter AS (2011). Long-Term Effects of the Cleaner Fish Labroides dimidiatus on Coral Reef Fish Communities. PLoS ONE 6(6): e21201. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021201
• Grutter AS, Rumney JG, Sinclair-Taylor T, Waldie P, Franklin CE (2011). Fish mucous cocoons: the ‘mosquito nets’ of the sea. Biol. Lett. 7(2) doi:10.1098/rsbl.2010.0916
• Clague GE, Cheney KL, Goldizen AW, McCormick MI, Waldie PA and Grutter AS (2011). Long-term cleaner fish presence affects growth of a coral reef fish. Biol. Lett. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2011.0458