Ussif Rashid Sumaila

Who is Ussif Rashid Sumaila?

Ussif Rashid Sumaila is a professor of ocean and fisheries economics at the University of British Columbia, Canada, and the Director of the Fisheries Centre and Fisheries Economics Research Unit at the UBC Fisheries Centre. He specializes in bioeconomics, marine ecosystem valuation and the analysis of global issues such as fisheries subsidies, IUU fishing and the economics of high and deep seas fisheries. Sumaila has experience working in fisheries and natural resource projects in Norway, Canada and the North Atlantic region, Namibia and the Southern African region, Ghana and the West African region and Hong Kong and the South China Sea. He received his Bachelor of Science degree with honours from Ahmadu Bello University University in Nigeria and received his PhD from Bergen University in Norway.

Sumaila's work on international fisheries subsidies has been influential in the Doha Round of WTO negotiations concerning subsidies and countervailing measures. Expert advice from Sumaila has been sought by the White House, United Nations, Asian Development Bank, and Parliament in Canada and the United Kingdom. Sumaila has also been featured in the popular documentary End of the Line.