Mark Whittington

Mark has a degree in marine biology and a PhD in mariculture and fisheries. Mark joined ITOPF in 2007 and since then has attended shipping incidents around the world. Notable incidents have included the tankers HEBEI SPIRIT (South Korea) and BUNGA KELANA 3 (Singapore & Malaysia), containerships MSC NAPOLI (UK) and COSCO BUSAN (USA) and the bulk carrier OLIVA on Tristan da Cunha, the most remote inhabited island in the world.

Aside from spill work, Mark is Technical Team Manager for the Americas region (Arctic Canada south to Cape Horn and the Antarctic Peninsular) and leads ITOPF's Fisheries Working Group. He has supported inter-governmental and industry training courses and assisted with contingency planning initiatives at both national and local levels.

Previous Experience

Prior to joining ITOPF, Mark worked on a variety of marine coastal management and fisheries projects in the United Arab Emirates (1993-1994), Tanzania (1995), Mozambique (1996-2002) and UK (2003-2006). In addition to marine research, he has also worked as a commercial diver, an expedition guide in Arctic, Antarctic and the Indian Ocean and a manager for landmine clearance projects.

ITOPF Working Groups

Mark is lead of the Fisheries Working Group and a member of the Risk Management Working Group.

Languages

English (native)

Portuguese (basic)

Publications

Gell FR and Whittington MW (2002) Diversity of fishes in seagrass beds in the Quirimba Archipelago, northern Mozambique. Marine and Freshwater Research, 53:115-121

Barnes DKA, Dulvy NK, Priestley SH, Darwall WRT, Choiseul V and Whittington M (2002) Fishery characteristics and abundance estimates of the mangrove crab Scylla serrata in southern Tanzania and northern Mozambique. South African Journal of Marine Science 24:19-25

Myers, M. and Whittington, M. (2000). Mozambique, in: Sheppard, C.R.C. (Ed.) (2000). Seas at the millennium: an environmental evaluation: 2. Regional chapters: The Indian Ocean to The Pacific. pp. 99-112

Rodrigues MJ, Motta H, Whittington MW and Schleyer M (2000) Coral reefs of Mozambique. 107-129pp. In: Coral Reefs of the Indian Ocean, their ecology and conservation, McClanahan TR, Sheppard CRC and Obura DO (eds). Oxford University Press, New York, 525pp.

Barnes DKA, Corrie A, Whittington M, Carvalho MA and Gell FR (1998) Coastal shellfish resource use in the Quirimba Archipelago, Mozambique. Journal of Shellfish Research. 17(1): 51-58