Alba´s 4-month research stay at the University of California comes to its end

As part of her PhD, Alba Aguión is constructing a spatial bioeconomic model for the stalked barnacle fishery in Galicia (NW Spain). After her visit to the University of Oviedo to work with Antonella Rivera at the end of August, Alba moved to Santa Barbara to start a research stay at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management (University of California) to keep working on the design of her model. Her work at Bren has been supervised by  Christopher Costello, an environmental economist and world expert on bioeconomic fisheries modelling. Campus do Mar (University of Vigo) doctoral program has partially funded Alba´s stay.

During this time, Alba has nailed down the research questions she aims to answer with her model after fruitful discussions with Costello and other emLAB members in seminars such as the one held last September at the Marine Science Institute. Pinning her questions down has enable her to construct a multi-patch model that, taking into account the environmental and economic components of the fishery, estimates the revenues of spatial and non-spatial policies. Alba´s current work is focused on the design of management scenarios that can be tested in the model to provide insights of  the best practices to ensure sustainable resource use.  During her stay at UCSB, Alba is not only advacing in her work, but establishing new collaborations with researchers that share similar interests, learning about novel analysis methods and practising her presentation skills. These last 4 months have been a big push on Alba´s PhD – just the best present before Christmas!

From here we thank the Sustainable Fisheries Group, and particularly Chris Costello, for hosting Alba