Staff

Trevor Taylor, Policy Director, was a cabinet minister in the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly from 2000 until late 2009 when he joined Oceans North Canada. When he left politics, Trevor was Minister of Transportation but also served as Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Labrador and Aboriginal Affairs, Innovation, Trade and Rural Development and the Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corporation. Raised in Gunners Cove, Newfoundland, Trevor has been a northern cod and shrimp fisherman, skipper and board member of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers' Union, the Fisheries Resource Conservation Council and the Centre for Fisheries Innovation. He is based in Ottawa where he coordinates policy and leads the Baffin Bay fisheries ecosystem management campaign.

Chris Debicki, Nunavut Projects Director, is a lawyer and human rights advocate. From 2004 to 2009, he was the executive director of Maliiganik Tukisiiniakvik, a legal aid clinic in Nunavut.  In 2007, he collaborated with the Nansen Institute in Norway to do oceanographic research in Greenland and sailed through the Northwest Passage as part of a campaign to raise awareness about the impact of climate change on Inuit communities.  He received his law degree from McGill University and also studied at the University of Manitoba, the University of Cape Town and Jagiellonian University in Poland.  He lives in Iqaluit and is working on the creation of a national marine conservation area in Lancaster Sound.

Henry Huntington, Ph.D., Science Director, is an Arctic scientist specializing in human-environment interactions including research on traditional knowledge. He is the author or co-author of more than three dozen scientific papers and many other publications ranging from the conduct of social science research in indigenous communities to the impacts of climate change on marine mammals. He has worked among and in collaboration with the Yupik, Inupiat, Inuvialuit and Inuit and other Arctic indigenous peoples. His research has involved many Arctic indigenous organizations and international institutions including the Arctic Council, Inuit Circumpolar Council, Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, the North Slope Borough and the Hamlet of Clyde River. He has also worked with government agencies such as the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission and Environment Canada. He lives in Eagle River, Alaska.

Ruth Teichroeb, Communications Manager, was an award-winning investigative journalist for two decades at newspapers, including the Winnipeg Free Press and Seattle Post-Intelligencer. She is also the author of the 1997 book Flowers On My Grave published by HarperCollins Canada about the life and death of a 13-year-old Ojibwa boy and Manitoba’s struggling aboriginal foster-care system. Ruth attended Stanford University on a prestigious John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship in 2007-08 and is a graduate of Carleton University in Ottawa and the University of Waterloo. She lives in Seattle, Washington.

Gary Stewart, Senior Advisor, grew up in the forests of eastern Canada and earned a masters degree in wetland ecology from McGill University. Gary has more than 30 years experience in the conservation field and has worked on private and public land programs across Canada. He recently retired from Ducks Unlimited Canada where he developed and managed its western boreal conservation program. He works from his home office near Edmonton, Alberta and oversees the Canadian Beaufort fisheries management plan campaign.

Louie Porta, Science and Policy Analyst, holds a master’s degree in resource and environmental management from Dalhousie University. Through his experience working as a fisheries biologist for the Fisheries Joint Management Committee, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and the Mi’kmaq Confederation for Prince Edward Island, he developed an expertise in community-based fisheries, marine mammal, and ecosystem monitoring and management. He led the Western Arctic Beluga Monitoring Program from 2008 -2010, helped develop and implement a marine mammal observer program for the Western Arctic, and contributed to the creation of the Tarium Niryutait Marine Protected Area. Louie is based out of British Columbia and is working with Gary Stewart on developing a precautionary fisheries management framework for the Beaufort Sea.

Kristin Westdal, Marine Biologist, is a biologist specializing in Arctic marine mammals. Between 2001 and 2005 she ran a kayaking operation on the Hudson Bay coast that investigated beluga whale behaviors and natural history. She has worked extensively in the Eastern Arctic researching narwhal, beluga and killer whales. She has a masters of environmental science from the University of Manitoba and currently lives in Winnipeg where she is working on the Lancaster Sound Arctic Whale Survey.