Dr. Nina Wambiji is a Senior Research Scientist having worked at the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI), Mombasa, Kenya for the last 17 years. She is the Assistant Director responsible for the Fisheries Section at KMFRI. In her personal capacity, she is a Marine Fisheries scientist with experience in various multidisciplinary aspects of fisheries biology and ecology, stock assessment, fish genetics, marine mammal’s research in the Western Indian Ocean Region and marine biodiversity data management through global databases Ocean Biodiversity Information System, World Register of Marine Species and African Register of Marine Species (http://www.marinespecies.org/afremas). She works on Rabbitfishes, marine megafauna (whales, dolphins, sharks, rays and sea turtles) and most recently billfishes. She studied Limnology from India and then proceeded to Japan for her doctorate in Marine and Environmental Sciences (Fisheries science). She has successfully led various national and regional projects and is currently the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA) Country coordinator for Kenya. She has been a recipient of various fellowships: she is also an African Women in Research and Development (AWARD) fellow 2013 sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. AWARD is a mentorship and leadership program for African Scientists and the African Biosciences Challenge Fund (ABCF) fellowship October 2014-April 2015 at Biosciences eastern and central Africa at the International Livestock Research Institute (BecA-ILRI, Nairobi) where she was trained on the latest techniques in molecular genetics which unravelled the mysteries in the identification of Siganids in Kenya. She is an Australia Awards Africa alumni of the 2019 cohort which was impactful in embracing the Blue Economy agenda. 

She has recently finalized a MASMA Project-BY-Catch Assessment and Mitigation in Western Indian Ocean Fisheries (BYCAM) Project-2015-2017 funded by WIOMSA. The project looked into bycatch assessment and mitigation of marine megafauna (whales, dolphins, shark, rays and sea turtles in the WIO region funded by WIOMSA (https://bycamwio.weebly.com/). 

In 2020, she won a Pew Marine fellowship and is currently working on Strengthening data collection and capacity building for effective conservation and management of billfish in the Western Indian Ocean region in collaboration with a MASMA Project- Billfish Interactions, Livelihoods, and Linkages for Fisheries sustainability in the Western Indian Ocean (BILLFISH-WIO). This ensures that the project is run in all 10 Western Indian Ocean countries (https://billfishwio.com/).

With her work in fisheries, she aims to improve the lives of coastal people, especially women. Her research entails understanding the fish catches, the fishing methodologies and their influences on the fisheries, persons involved and the habitat therein so as to estimate the stocks. She is also very dedicated on marine data management. With collaborations with other institutions she is concerned with who works on what, where and how is their data and information archived all for the management of our biodiversity and future generations. 

Research networks: ResearchGate