Wild Ocean Research
Wild Ocean Research is a bespoke consultancy offering tailored research services geared primarily towards ocean sciences. With over 20 years of diverse research experience, dozens of high-impact scientific publications, and a proven track record of success, Wild Ocean has the skills and knowledge to help advance your research. Past clients include international and intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, government agencies like Fisheries and Oceans Canada, conservation groups, academic institutions, and independent researchers.
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The primary services Wild Ocean offers include:
2021-2022: Climate Risk in Support of Marine Conservation
Clients: The Ocean Frontier Institute and Oceans North
Objective: Clients wanted a new method of understanding the climate risk for marine species to support conservation and management. This one-year consultancy involved assembling and coordinating an international team of researchers, developing a new framework to evaluate climate risk, assembling several large data sets, carrying out statistical analyses on a supercomputing cluster, publishing the findings, and communicating them to stakeholders and the media.
Result: The Climate Risk Index for Marine Life (CRIB) was published in two leading peer-reviewed journals and is now used to explore and support climate readiness in marine spatial planning, freshwater systems, and fisheries within Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
Outputs:
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​​​​​​​​​​​Boyce, D.G., Tittensor, D.P., Fuller S., Henson, S., Kaschner, K., Reygondeau, G., Schleit, K.E., Saba, V., Shackell, N., Stanley, R.R.E., Worm, B. (2024) Operationalizing climate risk in a global warming hotspot. NPJ | Ocean Sustainability. 3 (2024) 33
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Boyce, D.G. & Tittensor, D.P. How meeting the 2C goal cuts climate risk for 25,000 marine species. Carbon Brief (August 22, 2022)
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Boyce, D. G., Tittensor, D. P., Garilao, C., Henson, S., Kaschner, K., Kesner-Reyes, K., Pigot, A., Teyes Jr., R.B., Reygondeau, G., Schleit, K.E., Shackell, N.L., Sorongon-Yap, P., Worm, B. (2022). A climate risk index for marine life. Nature Climate Change. 12: 854-862.
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Boyce, D. G., Tittensor, D. P., Garilao, C., Henson, S., Kaschner, K., Kesner-Reyes, K., Worm, B. (2022). A climate risk index for marine life. Dryad Dataset. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.7wm37pvwr.​
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​2024: Addressing the Impacts of Climate Variability and Change on North Atlantic Fisheries
Clients: The United Nations and Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization
Objective: Clients wanted a comprehensive review and synthesis of the impacts of climate change on North Atlantic fisheries, past, present, and future. They sought advice on how the current NAFO ecosystem approach could be modified to support greater climate resilience in fisheries. Working under a three-month timeline, this consultancy involved compiling, synthesizing, and distilling almost 900 scientific studies, meeting and soliciting feedback from NAFO members, data analyses and figure preparation, report writing, and presenting and defending the work to the NAFO secretariat.
Outcomes: Clients were pleased with the work and accepted the advice provided. The research was published in a report for NAFO, an extended version for the UN, and a third manuscript is in preparation for peer review.
Outputs:
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An internal report for the NAFO secretariat.
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An extended report to be published as a UN FAO Technical Report.
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A journal article for the Journal of Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Science (in progress).
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Wild Ocean has a pristine record of delivering on time and above expectations. Some examples of recent consultancy projects and their outcomes include:
Wild Ocean boasts a wide range of research experience, with specialized knowledge of the effects of climate on marine life and how this information can aid in climate adaptation and conservation efforts. Their specialized expertise also extends to marine microbial ecology, focusing on marine phytoplankton and fisheries, especially forage fish.
Although Wild Ocean primarily operates as a fee-for-service entity, it occasionally engages in pro bono research projects that are particularly intriguing or involve supervising promising graduate students.