Dr. Ciara Willis is a biological oceanographer who studies how highly migratory predators act as connectors between physical, biological, and human systems in the open ocean. By combining animal tracking, biochemical tracers, and bioeconomic modelling, she examines how processes that span from individual behaviour to food webs and fisheries governance shape the functioning and sustainability of pelagic ecosystems. At MBARI, she advances the autonomous imaging system Piscivore to resolve fine-scale predator habitat use and predator-prey interactions, with broad applications for ecosystem monitoring.

Ciara earned her PhD in Biological Oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (MIT-WHOI) Joint Program, USA, and her BSc in Marine Biology from Dalhousie University, Canada. Prior to joining MBARI, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Fisheries Science at the University of Tasmania, Australia, where she worked on human-wildlife interactions in the context of recreational fisheries. Ciara additionally contracts as a fisheries analyst for stakeholders across the Indian and Pacific Oceans.