Carla Guenther PhD

Carla Guenther is Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries’ Chief Scientist. After studying lobster behavior at Woods Hole, MA she decided to test the waters of Baja California, Mexico where she learned about a special form of community-based co-management. Inspired by fishermen’s level of organization and management structure, Carla gained her PhD in Marine Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She engaged Santa Barbara’s commercial lobster fleet while conducting interviews for her doctoral research on Marine Protected Area impacts on socio-economics, reef ecology, and fishing behavior. These interviews became the basis of her communication with the rest of California’s commercial lobster fleet and fostered the fishery’s application for Marine Stewardship Council Certification, proposed legislation for self-funding lobster management science, and voluntary fishery-collection of biological data for use in the first stock assessment of California spiny lobster populations.  Educated in oceanography, ecology, and anthropology, Carla approaches fisheries management with a focus on fishing communities. Carla lives in Deer Isle with her husband Dominic and daughters Cameron and Leah.