As a deep-sea explorer and marine biologist, Dr. Cherisse Du Preez studies animals living on the seafloor far below the sunlit surface. She uses underwater cameras to document previously unexplored environments and the animals that call them home (many new to science). She is particularly fond of using Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) to map and characterize complex 3D environments, monitoring changes over time at sub-centimetre resolutions. Cherisse works for Fisheries and Oceans Canada to establish and monitor large Marine Protected Areas around hydrothermal vents, seamounts, cold seeps, and other deep-sea hotspots of biological diversity in Pacific Canada and the High Seas. She strives to align her research program with commitments to the co-creation of knowledge with Indigenous People, the incorporation of traditional knowledge, and nation-to-nation cooperative management and monitoring, as well as diversity inclusion and sharing science through ‘different ways of knowing.’ In addition to being a scientist, Cherisse is also a Canadian Delegate, an adjunct Professor at the University of Victoria, and an avid science communicator.
She was a member of the science team on Ecosystem Dynamics of Hydrothermal Vent Communities.
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