Kieran
Kelleher - short resumé
Kieran
Kelleher - short resumé
I qualified as a biologist almost 30 years ago from University in Cork, Ireland. Following some years of fisheries research on oysters and pike, I studied for an MBA in Trinity College, Dublin. Returning to the sea, I spent some years working as a diver and trawler fisherman before leaving Irish shores to build and operate fish culture stations in the Central African Republic.
In the late 1970s I moved to Papua New Guinea, where I spent seven years working with the rich tuna, shrimp, and lobster fisheries, and in the development of the small-scale coastal fisheries. These were interesting times in the Pacific, and as Chief Fisheries Economist for the PNG Government, I was involved with a wide range of projects - from pearl oysters to mud crabs, salted tilapia to crocodile farms. As the PNG technical representative to the Forum Fisheries Agency, I spent much time travelling the South Pacific as the Island Nations asserted jurisdiction over the 200-mile EEZs.
There were new challenges in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in the late 1980s as I managed the Djibouti Fishermen's Co-operative during the Gulf war, the Ethiopian famine, and the conflicts in Somalia. In 1988 our family of four moved to Mozambique to grapple with the legacy of central planning in the vital fishery sector which accounted for almost 50% of Mozambique's foreign exchange.
In 1995, as our children moved to secondary schools, I returned to Ireland, from where I now work as a consultant on fisheries and aquatic resources matters for a range of institutions and consultancy firms. I speak fluent French and Portuguese, which allows me to work effectively in most African countries. I also lecture to the Master of Fisheries Management course at University College Cork.
Since 1995, I have worked in a wide range of projects and prepared numerous reports and publications. The following are some of the projects undertaken in recent years:
Marketing:
markets for pelagic fish (Ireland); global markets for herring; electronic
marketing and auctioning of fish (UK).
Fisheries
resource assessment and management: management plan for Lake Cahora
Bassa (Zambezi); risk assessment of fisheries of the South Atlantic; management
of multispecies fisheries in the West African region.
Monitoring,
control and surveillance of fisheries: Southern African Development
Community (Angola, Namibia, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania); Sub-Regional
Fisheries Commission (C. Verde, Gambia, Guinea, G. Bissau, Mauritania,
Senegal); Somalia; Sierra Leone.
Sector
studies and projects: Syria, Libya, Western Indian Ocean fisheries;
Estonian accession to the EU; economic impact of fisheries access agreements
in West Africa.
Marine
environment: Strategic Action Programme for the coastal and marine
environment of the Western Indian Ocean; participation in the IUCN European
Sustainable Use Group on Fisheries. Environmental impact assessment in
Cork harbour, Ireland.
My main hobbies are competitive swimming, water polo, surfing and sailing. My family and I live in Passage West, a small port in Cork harbour on the south coast of Ireland. Contact details: