Johnstone Omukoto Omuhaya is a Senior Research Scientist at the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI), Mombasa. He formerly worked for 3 years as a Fisheries Officer at the Ministry of Fisheries Development, Kenya (2009-2012) and earlier on as a Research Assistant at the Wildlife Conservation Society, Mombasa, Kenya for 3 years (2006-2009). He is currently pursuing a PhD in Environmental Science at Lancaster University, United Kingdom.He has an accumulated 15 years’ experience on fisheries and aquatic sciences research.

Professional commitments at KMFRI involves collection, compilation and analysis of marine and coastal fisheries statistics/data, marine fisheries exploratory surveys, fishery observer’s deployment, proposal writing, marine biodiversity assessment, data analysis, technical report writing and dissemination and publishing of research findings using different dissemination tools. He has also worked on institutional projects, task teams, and individual small-grant projects and collaborated on national and regional research projects. For example, he worked on an ESPA funded Participatory modeling of wellbeing tradeoffs in coastal Kenya (P-Mowtick) project (2009-2013); ESPA research “Sustainable Poverty Alleviation from Coastal Ecosystem Services (SPACES) during 2014-2017; a WIOMSA-MASMA Project on “A socio-ecological assessment of fisheries in three estuarine systems of the SW Indian Ocean – identifying essential links for improved governance (ESTUARIZE-WIO)”.

Currently working as a participating research scientist on two Billfish Research Projects in the WIO region: 1. WIOMSA- MASMA funded project “Billfish Interactions, Livelihoods, and Linkages for FISHeries sustainability in the Western Indian Ocean (BILLFISH - WIO); and 2. PEW funded project “Strengthening data collection and capacity building for effective conservation and management of billfish fisheries in the Western Indian Ocean region”.

His PhD study is focused on disentangling the determinants of fish for food and nutrition security towards tackling hidden hunger using small-scale tropical fisheries. This is funded through the European Research Council (ERC) Project FairFish-Hidden Hunger Forgotten Food at Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, UK.

Has led-authored on 1 peer reviewed publication and co-authored on 9 peer reviewed publications; Has made scientific disseminations in 6 WIOMSA Symposia (5^th, 6^th, 8^th, 9^th, 10^th and 11^th), 1 KCDP conference and 1 GLOW Conference (9^th). He has supervised BSc students attached at the KMFRI. Worked as a part-time lecturer at the Kenyatta University, Mombasa campus where he taught Coastal Fisheries unit to 3^rd year students.

• Research Networks : Research Gate

1. Twitter: https://twitter.com/jomukoto1
2. Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/omuhaya-omukoto-4aa44359/
3. YouTube: https://youtu.be/i7lYNaTX_V4?t=41
4. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X5JOrXacuc