Director of Science
Marine
Jono_wilson@tnc.org
Jono is the Director of Ocean Science for The Nature Conservancy’s California Chapter. His team works across disciplines to solve the world’s most pressing ocean conservation challenges, including: restoration and recovery of key habitats and species, fisheries science and management, mitigation of ocean and land-based sources of plastic pollution, and the protection and restoration of island ecosystems. Jono is trained as a fisheries ecologist and spent many years working with small-scale fishing communities to drive management change. He continues to use a community-centered approach to conservation across all his projects - developing partnerships, informing strategic conservation actions, and driving towards scalable outcomes to restore abundance to the ocean.
Jono earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he is now an Adjunct Professor at UCSB’s Bren School of Environmental Science & Management. He advises students in ocean conservation.
What Jono is working on now:
Jono is exploring ways to increase the pace and scale of ocean conservation through adaptive decision-making and adoption of novel tools and technology.
Christopher M. Free, Lyall F. Bellquist, Karin A. Forney, Jenn Humberstone, Kate Kauer, Qui Lee, Owen R. Liu, Jameal F. Samhouri, Jono R. Wilson, Darcy Bradley
Dynamic ocean management frameworks can be a useful approach to fisheries management under climate change. In the oceans, marine heatwaves are increasingly common symptoms of climate change that can…
Michael C. Melnychuk, Charmane E. Ashbrook, Richard J. Bell, Lyall Bellquist, Kate Kauer, Jono R. Wilson, Ray Hilborn, Jay Odell
America’s fisheries provide nearly two million jobs and contribute $117 billion to the national GDP. Although state and territory fisheries account for 40% of the commercial value of U.S. marine…
Lyall Bellquist, William J. Harford, Frank Hurd, Alexis Jackson, Jeremy D. Prince, Jan Freiwald, Anna Neumann, Jack Likins, Jono Wilson
Conventional fisheries management relies largely on professional sources of scientific data collection, typically from academic or government institutions. Development of community-led data sources…
Lindsay Bonito, Lyall Bellquist, Alexis M. Jackson, Kate Kauer, Mary G. Gleason, Jono Wilson, Stuart Sandin
Experimentation supports adaptive and climate-ready fisheries management in numerous contexts. Exempted Fishing Permits (EFPs) enable fisheries participants, scientists, and managers to…
Jessica Morten, Ryan Freedman, Jeffrey D. Adams, Jono Wilson, Aliya Rubinstein, Sean Hastings
The great whales, including, blue, humpback, and fin whales are threatened by collisions with ocean going vessels. Global shipping traffic is projected to increase up to 12-fold in coming decades.…
Brandon Kuczenski, Camila Vargas Poulsen, Eric L. Gilman, Michael Musyl, Roland Geyer, Jono Wilson
More than 4.5 million fishing vessels ply ocean waters each year, setting countless nets, traps, hooks and lines. Much of this fishing gear is made of plastic components and a significant fraction of…
William J. Harford, Ricardo Amoroso, Richard J. Bell, Matias Caillaux, Jason Marc Cope, Dawn Dougherty, Natalie Anne Dowling, Frank Hurd, Serena Lomonico, Josh Nowlis, Dan Ovando, Ana M. Parma, Jeremy D. Prince, Jono R. Wilson
Overfishing threatens the health of ocean ecosystems. Effective fisheries management is key to minimizing ocean impacts and improving outcomes for millions of fishing dependent people throughout the…
Lyall Bellquist, Vienna Saccomanno, Brice X. Semmens, Mary Gleason, Jono Wilson
The health of ocean ecosystems is critical to maintaining natural biodiversity and sustainable fisheries, but federally-declared fishery disasters are reflecting devastating impacts to ecosystems,…
Jono R Wilson, Darcy Bradley, Kristina Phipps, Mary G Gleason
Overfishing threatens the health and resilience of the ocean. In response, the global conservation community has set ambitious targets for protecting biodiversity inside no-take marine reserves. Yet…
Serena Lomonico, Mary G Gleason, Jono R Wilson, Darcy Bradley, Kate Kauer, Richard J Bell, Thomas Dempsey
Climate change poses unprecedented challenges to the sustainable management of wild capture fisheries. Management systems that improve the flow of information so that actionable steps can be taken are…
Eric Gilman, Michael Musyl, Petri Suuronen, Milani Chaloupka, Saeid Gorgin, Jono Wilson, Brandon Kuczenski
More than 4.5 million fishing vessels deploy fishing gear in the ocean every year. A significant amount of these nets, traps, lines, and floats are abandoned, lost, or discarded, threatening the…
Ray Hilborn, Ricardo Oscar Amoroso, Christopher M. Anderson, Julia K. Baum, Trevor A. Branch, Christopher Costello, Carryn L. de Moor, Abdelmalek Faraj, Daniel Hively, Olaf P. Jensen, Hiroyuki Kurota, L. Richard Little, Pamela Mace, Tim McClanahan, Michael C. Melnychuk, Cóilín Minto, Giacomo Chato Osio, Ana M. Parma, Maite Pons, Susana Segurado, Cody S. Szuwalski, Jono Wilson, Yimin Ye
Does fisheries management work at improving the status of fish stocks? The answer is a resounding, yes. This article compiles estimates of the status of global fish stocks, comprising roughly half of…
Sean P. Fitzgerald , Hunter S. Lenihan, Jono R. Wilson, Carolynn S. Culver, Matthew Potoski
This paper highlights the benefits of collaborative fisheries research in the management of wild capture fisheries. The authors teamed up with commercial fishermen in the southern California…
Darcy Bradley, Matt Merrifield, Karly M. Miller, Serena Lomonico, Jono R. Wilson, Mary G. Gleason
A lack of fishery data leads to uncertainty about stock status, which may compromise and threaten the economic and food security of the users dependent upon that stock and increase the…
William J. Harford, Natalie A. Dowling, Jeremy D. Prince, Frank Hurd, Lyall Bellquist, Jack Likins, Jono R. Wilson
Among abalone species that were once harvested along the California coastline, red abalone (Haliotis rufescens) supports the remaining recreational fishery. To support development of a red abalone…
Sean P. Fitzgerald, Jono R. Wilson , Hunter S. Lenihan
Despite the economic value of California fisheries, many lack information needed to determine if fishing is occurring at a sustainable level. The Southern California Rock Crab fishery in the Santa…
Jono R. Wilson, Serena Lomonico, Darcy Bradley, Leila Sievanen, Tom Dempsey, Michael Bell, Skyli McAfee, Christopher Costello, Cody Szuwalski, Huff McGonigal, Sean Fitzgerald, Mary Gleason
Climate change is amplifying threats to ocean ecosystems and marine fisheries worldwide. In order to respond appropriately in the face of these ocean changes, commercial and recreational…
Wilson J. , McGonigal, H., Dempsey, T., Gleason, M., Rienecke, S.
Fisheries management in California is a complex, resource intensive process that is limited by funding and staff capacity. In this report, Conservancy scientists and colleagues identify ways in which…
Daniel Ovando, Dawn Dougherty, Jono R. Wilson
No-take marine reserves are a management intervention that can provide long-term fishery benefits. But, impacts of reserve implementation can negatively affect fishermen profits in the short term.…
The Nature Conservancy, Jono Wilson
California fisheries, like the red abalone fishery, are facing increasing environmental variation and uncertainty due to climate change, complicating the sustainable management of commercial and…
The Nature Conservancy, Jono Wilson
There are thousands of fisheries around the globe that lack the infrastructure, capacity, resources and management techniques to perform conventional assessments and management. We know that fisheries…