June 2005
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The path less travelled: Rachel Pears
PhD candidate and CRC Reef student Ms Rachel Pears appreciates having discovered her path in life, following a career change in the mid 1990s. When an ex-employer called recently, to ask whether his daughter could consult her about career choices, Rachel was glad to be able to tell her “whatever you decide, you’ll gain some good experience and still have the chance to make changes. Don’t let the decision paralyse you!” Rachel graduated as a materials scientist and engineer, and worked for several years for a large chemical manufacturing complex. The job was a mixture of technical engineering and project management. Until then, she hadn’t met anyone who could enlighten her about the possibilities of work in marine biology or natural resource management. But soon she met several engineers who liked SCUBA diving…and so she learned to dive. In 1991, an interest in marine conservation and research motivated Rachel to carry out awardwinning marine biological fieldwork in the Galapagos Islands with a team of scientists and divers, conducting archipelago-wide surveys of benthic fish species and habitats. So, with a rapidly growing interest in her life outside work, she decided to put the engineering down to experience, and shift career to marine research and environmental management. She soon left, as diving officer, for a three-month field trip to the Caribbean, as part of a team engaging local communities to survey some remote reefs in the interest of marine conservation and fisheries assessment. Her new interests and skills led to a Masters degree in Natural Resource Management, and a return to the Caribbean for the thesis: an assessment of a remote reef fishery. She then returned to the Galapagos archipelago, for further surveys, and eventually worked for the Charles Darwin Research Station on visual surveys for groupers and other exploited fish. After more years living nomadically, working for marine research and environmental organisations, and as a diver, Rachel arrived in Townsville to begin a PhD with CRC Reef and James Cook University on the biology of groupers. And Townsville felt like coming home. During her PhD she has developed and refined a visual survey technique for counting groupers. These fish are difficult to count because they’re cryptic, well-camouflaged, and can be sensitive to diver activity. The survey technique has been used throughout the Great Barrier Reef, and also in the Seychelles. Rachel has also looked at the biology of four species: flowery cod, camouflage cod, footballer cod and peacock cod. All have characteristics which make them potentially vulnerable to fishing: they are relatively long-lived, slow growing, have complex reproductive biology, and are relatively rare. Rachel hopes her PhD will help managers to make informed decisions about how to ensure these species are fished sustainably. |
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PO Box 772 Townsville
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