Miami, Florida, USA – How can marine protected areas protect migratory sea turtles, seabirds and whales in the Western Mediterranean Sea? This is a question that will be explored by , a research scientist at the 51 Marine Laboratory, in Beaufort, North Carolina and presently, a visiting scholar at the University of Washington's School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences in Seattle, Washington.

As a 2007 Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation, Hyrenbach will receive $150,000 to conduct a three-year conservation project designed to address critical challenges to healthy oceans. Hyrenbach’s Pew Fellow project focuses on evaluating the feasibility and effectiveness of spatially-explicit protective measures for highly-mobile marine vertebrates in the Alborán Sea, Western Mediterranean. The region is one of the most productive in the Mediterranean, with an impressive assemblage and density of oceanic species, including deep-diving whales and pelagic dolphins.

Hyrenbach will test the idea that marine protected areas (MPAs) can protect wide-ranging pelagic species by applying marine zoning to protect the foraging grounds and migration corridors of these animals. He will address this question by examining how oceanographic variability influences the distribution of marine vertebrates, including cetaceans, birds and turtles, and how these habitat associations influence the design and efficacy of pelagic MPAs.

“Each year, we are privileged to select five new Pew Fellows in Marine Conservation from an outstanding group of international nominees.  We are able to support rising stars who are developing new solutions to critical marine conservation issues,” says Ellen Pikitch, Ph.D., a Pew Fellow herself and executive director of the Pew Institute for Ocean Science at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. “The 2007 Pew Fellows in Marine Conservation are an impressive, accomplished group and we hope that this award will further propel their efforts to conserve the ocean environment.”

Hyrenbach has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California, San Diego and a Ph.D. in biological oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego.

The Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation funds research projects that address critical challenges in the conservation of the sea while also supporting communication of that information to increase awareness of global marine issues. Through the program’s rigorous nomination and review process – an international committee of marine specialists selects Pew Fellows based on their potential to protect ocean environments – five unique and timely projects led by outstanding professionals in their fields are selected annually. 

The Pew Marine Conservation Fellowship is awarded by the Pew Institute for Ocean Science. The mission of the  is to advance ocean conservation through science.   Established in by a generous multi-year grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Pew Institute for Ocean Science is a major program of the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

Photographs and more information about each of the 2007 Pew Fellows are available upon request. Detailed information about all Pew Fellows in Marine Conservation is available at:.

Contact: Polita Glynn, Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation: (305) 421.4231
Chris Dudley: (305) 456.1625