Members
Graca Bauleth-D’Almeida holds a BSc in Biology from Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania, USA in 1990 and an MSc in Marine, Estuarine and Environmental Sciences from the University of Maryland obtained in 1998.
She joined the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources as a Fisheries Biologist in 1993, progressing to the rank of Principal Fisheries Biologist in 2001, then Chief Fisheries Biologist in 2004 and Deputy Director in 2010. Since 2012 she has been the Director of Resource Management, overseeing the research and management of Namibia’s living marine resources and ensuring the health of the marine environment.
Over the years, she has conducted research on several aspects of the Benguela Current ecosystem as well as on all the commercial resources and has thereby amassed experience in acoustic survey methodology, resource dynamics and behaviour as well as the oceanographic aspects of the system. Graca has also acquired management skills and has a good grasp of good governance principles. She was instrumental in the establishment of the Benguela Current Convention, as the head of the Namibian negotiating team, and and played a key role in the formation of the National Commission on Research, Science and Technology as a Commissioner.
She has represented Namibia in several international fora, inter alia, UNCLOS (States Parties Meetings and International Seabed Authority), ICCAT and SEAFO, in some cases as head of delegation.
Graca is fluent in five languages, including three international working languages, namely English, Spanish and Portuguese. She has authored and co-authored several scientific publications on the horse mackerel resource in the Benguela Ecosystem.