Fisheries key contacts

Dr Richard O'Driscoll

Chief Scientist - Fisheries

Richard specialises in research aimed at improving estimates of fish abundance using acoustics, trawling, and complementary technologies. Since attaining his PhD from the University of Otago in 1997, he has had extensive sea-going and practical fisheries experience both in New Zealand and overseas, including the Antarctic. Richard is the immediate past chair (2017-2019) of the ICES Working Group on Fisheries Acoustics Science and Technology. He has worked at NIWA since 2000 and is currently a programme leader for NIWA's National Centre for the Fisheries Assessment and Monitoring programme.

Jeremy McKenzie

Principal Scientist - Fisheries

Senior fisheries stock assessment scientist with over 30 years’ experience in inshore fisheries stock assessment and monitoring. Has led or contributed to stock assessment and monitoring programmes for northern inshore fish species of commercial and recreational significance (e.g., snapper, trevally, terakihi and Jack mackerel) including catch at age and CPUE methods. He also has extensive experience in population modelling yield assessment, including age and length-based population modelling and yield-per-recruit approaches. Designed and led three previous snapper mark recapture programmes.

Dr Bradley Moore

Fisheries Scientist

Dr Matt Dunn

Principal Scientist - Fisheries

Matt has a Ph.D. in fisheries from the Business School at University of Portsmouth (UK), worked in fisheries research at CEFAS (UK), and then moved to New Zealand in 2003 to work for Victoria University of Wellington and NIWA. Matt is a leader of NIWAs Assessing Fishery Resources programme. The research Matt conducts is mostly fish stock assessments, involving quantitative fisheries data analyses and population modelling. Matt has also worked on fish biology, impacts of climate on fisheries, and food webs and ecosystem models. Matt has conducted reviews of stock assessment research for agencies in Australia, Europe, South America, and the USA.

Dr Darren Parsons

Principal Scientist - Marine Ecology

Darren completed a BSc and MSc at the University of Auckland where he studied the movements of snapper within the Goat Island Marine Reserve. Darren then completed a PhD at North Carolina State University where he investigated the indirect effects of recreational fishing on spiny lobster. Since 2006 Darren has been at NIWA, where he has worked on a range of fish ecology and inshore fisheries projects. In 2017 Darren was co-appointed through the University of Aucklands Joint Graduate School in Coastal and Marine Science.

Darrens research interests centre on fish ecology and understanding how it is modified by human induced stressors such as fishing, land-based effects and climate change. Darren is particularly interested in fish life-history, movement, behaviour and personality, and how fisheries select and modify these aspects within fish populations. Darren has existing projects investigating: (i) nursery habitat association in juvenile snapper, (ii) the effects of ocean acidification on snapper larvae, (iii) the age structure of inshore fish populations such as snapper and trevally, and (iv) inshore trawl surveys of the Hauraki Gulf and Bay of Plenty.

Dr Jennifer Devine

Fisheries Scientist

25 years of experience in fisheries biology and ecology, quantitative methods of analysing fisheries and survey data, and survey design and implementation. Over 16 years of experience designing and leading quantitative net-based, acoustic, longline, and multipurpose surveys in the North Sea, New Zealand, the Arabian Sea, and Antarctica, and have designed a 4-month survey using autonomous vehicles in the North Sea. 7 years of experience running stock assessments in Europe (FLR and SAM) and over 25 years of conducting analyses of fisheries data, including over 10 years of experience conducting descriptive and CPUE analyses. I have experience conducting thorough reviews of data inputs for assessments, through the ICES benchmark procedures, both as a person doing the benchmark and one overseeing and directing the process. I have conducted a full-feedback MSE simulation. Currently, leading a team of NIWA scientists working on projects of relevance to CCAMLR and New Zealand on Antarctic fisheries and directing a team that conducts NIWA’s fisheries surveys (acoustic, net-based, and camera).

Chloe Hauraki

Manager - Fisheries Centre Operations

Chloe has a diverse background in project and programme management across a number of key corporate organisations in Aotearoa New Zealand and the UK, developing a broad set of skills and experience along the way.  She studied Marine Biology at University of Waikato, working with Ngāi Te Rangi funding to explore habitat construction and reseeding of juvenile paua in the Tauranga Moana Mātaitai.  Since joining NIWA in 2015, Chloe has held previous roles with the Fisheries Centre, and as Challenge & Engagement Manager of the Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge. Email

Lisa Bragg

Personal Assistant

Currently working as Personal Assistant to the following Chief Scientists:

Fisheries - Richard O'Driscoll; Oceans - Mike Williams; Climate Atmosphere and Hazards - Andrew Tait; HPC and Data Science - Jess Robertson, Julie Hall - Freshwater (acting)

David Kopp

Contracts Manager